Worlds Apart - Part III
by Miss Lydia
Summary: To be read after completion of Part I and Part II.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 **Four Years Later...**

"Get off the road!" Gordon yelled out the window with a fist raised as he passed a slow-moving car on the highway. "The speed limit is seventy! That means you go seventy-five, not fifty!"

After getting ahead of the beat-up old Ford and momentarily scowling at the beat-up old man behind the wheel, he veered his truck back into the right lane and continued on his way.

He passed a road sign that told him he was only ten miles from his destination - Lydia's apartment. His older sister had called him earlier that morning on his cell phone, saying that he had to come to her place as soon as possible. By 'as soon as possible', she of course actually meant 'get your butt over here in thirty minutes or else', but it still took Gordon a couple of hours to actually get on the road. She would probably be irritated when he got there. Nevermind that it took more than thirty minutes to drive from his parents' house to his sister's place.

With a sigh, he rolled down the window and leaned his head back against the seat as the summer wind did a number on his hair. He hadn't seen Lydia in almost a month. Stuff had been going on on his end - wrapping up the school year, a part-time job... He supposed Lydia had been busy with her own stuff. She usually wasn't out of contact with him for that long. Ever since... that happened... Lydia had been very socially needy when it came to her younger brother.

Before he could even stop himself, as he usually tried to, he ended up thinking about all that had happened.

It had been four years since that time. Attempting to get the three of them out of his hair, but still alive for his own purposes, Ganondorf had imprisoned their minds in a make-believe world that was a mixture of the present Hyrule and the past one. However, thanks to Lydia's days under Ganondorf's mind control prior to that, she had a particular resistance to the magic and was able to make a crack in the spell. The three of them all broke free of it, and attempted an escape from the Tower. The Evil King, however, caught up to them. In a desperate fight with Ganondorf, Link had been killed trying to protect Lydia. Immediately after, Ganondorf destroyed the Ocarina of Time, sending them permanently back to their home world. Gordon had been injured in the fight, but he was back on his feet in a few weeks. Lydia had been uninjured thanks to Link's protection... but that was only outside. Inside, she was completely destroyed. The level of her emotional damage almost wrecked her life.

Gordon had been unconscious for it, but apparently Ganondorf made Lydia's grief at losing Link worse by telling her that it was _her_ fault that he was killed. She never got over it. Even though for many months afterward Gordon kept insisting that protecting her was what Link _wanted_ to do, Lydia could never shake the idea that it was all her fault.

Even though Gordon was also emotionally damaged from the loss of Link, a close friend and comrade of his, he handled it a lot better than his sister did. She couldn't be blamed for that, though. She and Link had something much more between them than just comradeship. Gordon couldn't even _begin_ to imagine what it must have felt like for her. Though he dealt with his sadness and did the best he could with his life, Lydia was a completely different story.

After they were thrown back to their world, it was weeks before Lydia slept or ate properly. Not even things she used to love could shake her out of her stupor. She cried more than she didn't. She rarely left her room, let alone the house. She was supposed to start college at the end of the summer, but she never went.

He was trying to do the brotherly duty of protecting his sister's fragile psyche, but what Gordon did that day may have actually worsened things for Lydia, for a short time, at least. For another six months or so after that, since no one was questioning or bothering her, she became somewhat reckless with herself. She could never hold a job for more than a couple of weeks, her sleep schedule was never regular. The madness and self-destruction lasted until about a year after they had come home.

One day, Lydia had a realization as to what she was doing to herself, and proceeded to spend almost an hour crying on her brother's shoulder. She wanted to fix this - she wanted to turn things around, and try to move on. Gordon had known exactly how to seal the deal and get Lydia motivated to get her life back on track. He had asked her, "Lydia... What would Link want you to do now?"

As soon as the next semester was set to start, Lydia went to college. It was a state university in a nearby city, a short drive from home. She had no idea what she wanted to major in, but she was going to school now, and that was enough for the time being. She also got a job - some retail work. It wasn't much, but it also didn't require a lot of effort to do well in; exactly what Lydia needed. After her freshman year, she had earned enough money to move away from home, and got an apartment in her school's town. She was nineteen at the time.

Gordon visited her on and off, and much more frequently when he got a driver's license. His sister's apartment wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't a dump either, and it was in a nice neighborhood about ten minutes away from her school. Her grades in school were decent, and she still managed to hold that same job, so she must have been avoiding screwups at work, too. Gordon was so proud of his sister. Of course, even though she was now moving on fairly well and getting her life going again, she still had her occasional bouts of crippling depression. After all, she still believed that Link's death was her fault. Sometimes she would be thinking of a happy memory with him, which would accidentally move on to memories of what happened to him, and she would be just destroyed for the rest of the day. There'd be no talking to her. She had never been _quite_ the same again after losing Link like that, but she was doing all right overall.

However, just because she was doing her best to live a normal life, it didn't mean that she still wasn't heavily involved in her old life. Her apartment was actually a two-bedroom place. Obviously, she only needed one. The second spare bedroom was littered with spellbooks, diagrams, and research papers. She was determined to finish what Link started. She felt she owed that much to him. She wanted to find a way back to Hyrule and see if she could do anything to help. Personally, Gordon didn't believe it was within their magical power to breach the dimensional borders like that, but Lydia didn't listen to him. She kept insisting that since the Ocarina of Time had that kind of power, she'd find a way to harness the power herself. After all, Maya and Riku had been the keys to creating the Ocarina. The secret _had_ to be there somewhere, waiting for discovery. Lydia spent all of her free time in that spare bedroom.

It had been two years since she started doing her heavy research... and as far as Gordon knew, she still hadn't found a way back to Hyrule. Gordon was now seventeen years old, and Lydia had just turned twenty-one.

Four long years had passed...

Lost in thought, Gordon almost missed his exit, and had to veer off the highway at the last second. Lydia's apartment was right off the highway, so it only took a few minutes to get there. He passed a McDonalds on the way and considered swinging through the drive-thru, but decided to keep driving. Lydia was already going to tear him a new one for being so late.

He pulled his oversized truck into the apartment complex and found an empty parking space. He stuffed the keys into the pocket of his jeans and headed up to the door of Lydia's building. It actually was a fairly nice place, and he felt better knowing Lydia lived in a safe neighborhood. ...Well, it wasn't like she couldn't easily fend off any would-be muggers, but it still made him more at ease that she was in a respectable place.

A few moments after he pushed the button for her apartment number, Lydia's computerized voice came through on the intercom, a little broken, but still audible.

" _Hello?_ "

"It's me."

" _What, did you get lost? Come on up._ "

The door buzzed and unlocked, and Gordon stepped in. Lydia's apartment was on the third floor. His footsteps on the carpeted stairway echoed through the entire building, it seemed. Lydia's unit was the first one at the top of the stairs. The welcome mat on the floor just outside was very typical of her - it had a picture of a cat on it. She loved cats.

He knocked softly on the door. It was his intention to knock three times, as was his habit, but after two, the door flew open. A pair of slender hands shot out from inside, as if to attack him. They grabbed the front of Gordon's shirt tightly and yanked him in before he could even react. The door slammed behind him, and the person on the other end of those arms excitedly slammed him against the wall. Lydia stared him in the eye with a wide, triumphant grin on her face.

Lydia had since grown her hair out again - it hung long, down to the middle of her back. She still wore glasses, having given up completely on contact lenses. She was wearing a denim long-sleeved shirt that zipped up in the front, accompanied by a matching pair of jeans, as well as her usual oversized black shoes. Today, it seemed that her look was supplemented by dark undereye circles and messy hair. Had she been awake all night?

She raised her index finger and pointed it directly in her brother's face. In the most cocky voice she could muster, she declared, "I did it. You said I couldn't, but I _so_ did."

Gordon was confused, and tried to push himself off the wall. "...Did _what_?"

Pushing him against the wall again, Lydia repeated herself. "I did it! C'mon! C'mon!" Taking a tight grip on her brother's shirt, she dragged him through the apartment and into the spare bedroom. Careful not to step on any of the papers littering the floor, Lydia dragged Gordon over to the desk, stood him in front of it, and pointed excitedly at a particular piece sitting right in the center of the mess.

It was a worn, well-used sheet of paper with all kinds of scribblings and notes on it. It was surrounded by even more sheets of notes - even some entire notebooks-full of them. The walls were littered with diagrams and enchantments. Gordon took a closer look at the sheet his sister was frantically pointing at. At first, he didn't see what she was excited about. He had actually seen this sheet before - a mixture of notes and small diagrams his sister had drawn. ...But when he looked a second time, he noticed something new. There was something written on the bottom page in technical terms of magic... relating to space-time. He read what was written there, and it somehow, as if magic in itself, made everything else on the page tie together and make sense.

Realizing what he was looking at, he looked in amazement at his sister, who was standing next to him with her hands on her hips, wearing an I-told-you-so smile on her face.

"...Don't tell me you..." Gordon muttered in disbelief.

"Yes, young acolyte," Lydia replied, grinning. "I found the way back to Hyrule."

"But it wasn't _us_ that had a hand in creating the Ocarina of Time! Those secrets were supposed to be long lost."

"Oh, ye of little faith, don't worry. I'll tell you all the juicy details over some lunch. I put some pizza rolls in the oven a while ago. Want some?"

"Huh? Um, sure."

Lydia bounced up and down a few times, very pleased with herself, and skipped out of the bedroom and into the small kitchen.

Still in disbelief, Gordon picked up the sheet of paper with bits and pieces of the spell scrawled all over it and took a second look. ...Sure enough... it looked like she really _had_ found the method to make a temporary crack in the dimensional barrier. Those two years of slaving over all of the spellbooks in this room seemed to have finally paid off.

While he was busy being amazed, Gordon noticed another sheet of paper that had been right under the one he now held in his hand. It was a diagram of something that looked a bit like a bird, surrounded by all sorts of notes, and an incantation he had heard before on one occasion.

A spellsheet for the Phoenix Flare.

It was the spell that Lydia had worked on for years after the _first_ time they had been sent back to their world after a battle. Now that Gordon knew the details of the spell, it really _had_ been an ingenious thing to use against Ganondorf back then, on that day four years earlier - the day she finally revealed it. Instead of black magic, as was her specialty, the spell was constructed of pure white magic which borrowed energy from the forces of nature. Lydia's logic was that if you can't fight fire with fire, fight fire with ice. Since white magic was not Lydia's strong point, under normal circumstances, she would never have been able to generate energy of that level. Thankfully, as an unintended consequence of the spell, she had gotten some outside help from Maya at the crucial moment. In addition, since it was white magic, it seemed to have some slight healing capabilities as well.

Unfortunately, two Triforce pieces was simply too much. Ganondorf was too strong. All the spell did was bruise him up a bit. Maybe if the spell had been used against him back when he had only one piece, maybe things would have turned out differently.

Upon a second look-over of the scribblings, Gordon noticed that this wasn't the Phoenix Flare exactly as he had remembered it. A few things had been crossed out and replaced by something else, and some new things had been added. It looked like more influence was being put into the healing aspect of the spell... just enough to almost make it into a new spell.

Lydia hadn't told him about _this_...

Just then, her voice sailed out of the kitchen. "Food!"

Gordon set the papers back down on the desk and headed out into the living room. Lydia had set two plates of pizza rolls on the ottoman, and had planted herself on the floor next to it, with her back resting against the couch. He sat down next to her and started to help himself to the food.

Not one to waste time, Lydia immediately started to go over the details of what she had come up with, right down to the nitty-gritty of the magical components and details that only the two of them would understand. It wasn't an actual spell, he was told, in that it didn't have a name or an incantation. It was simply the act of mentally concentrating on the dimensional borderline and creating a temporary crack in it by using said methods. It would create a portal to the other side, but it wouldn't last more than ten seconds or so, so they'd have to be quick about crossing over. Their current power level just wasn't enough to buy themselves more time than that.

When Lydia was done with her long, technical explainaton, Gordon leaned back and rested his head on the couch cushion. "Amazing," he whispered. "So complicated, and yet, so simple."

Quickly swallowing her food, his sister replied, "Exactly. So complicated, and yet, so simple that I could teach you how to do it in the span of this very afternoon."

"You need to teach _me_ how to do it, too?"

Suddenly, Lydia's face turned red and she smiled bashfully. "Actually, that's why I called you out here today. Now that I know how to get to Hyrule, I want to go there and have a look around, see what we're dealing with, y'know. That way we won't have to go back without a plan. But, see... the catch is that I don't know how to do the spell in reverse."

"What?"

"Meaning that I'll have to have you here, so that you can open the portal for me from this side."

"Wait, you're going _without_ me?"

"It's the way it's gotta be, though."

"There's no way you're not taking me with you!" The sorcerer started to get visibily agitated.

"Kid, I just said that I was only going to take a look around. I'm not going to _do_ anything. I'll be gone a few hours, tops. Once we figure out how to open the portal from the opposite side, we'll both go, find Ganondorf, and do some damage."

"...All right, all right."

Lydia smiled. "Thanks, man."

As she started to go for another pizza roll, Gordon suddenly asked, "What is that you're doing in there with the Phoenix Flare?"

She stopped mid-reach.

"You didn't say you were working on it further," he continued. "Just to safisfy my curiosity..."

The girl again rested her back against the couch and sighed. "Technically, it's the same spell, but it's a more advanced variation if it. I'll bet you noticed the difference."

"Indeed, I did," Gordon replied, going for another pizza roll. "There was a lot more emphasis on the healing part."

"Right. Instead of drawing power from nature with an emphasis on attacking, I would draw power from nature's regeneration abilities, instead. The incantation is even the same, right up until the end. The same spell... yet with a completely different effect. Instead of using the power of the phoenix to attack, I use its abilities of regeneration and rebirth." She lowered her head, and her hair fell down in front of her eyes. Her voice started to break with emotion. "I think... if I had been able to do that... back then... I could have saved him."

Gordon's heart went out to his sister, and he wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close. She rested her head on his shoulder and tried not to cry.

"Don't worry," Gordon said reassuringly. "We'll avenge him. Ganondorf will be sorry he was even born."

"Okay, do you think you get it?" Lydia asked.

"Yeah," her brother replied, shuffling the masses of papers back into place. "Actually, you were right - there's not a lot to it."

It had been three hours since lunch - Gordon had actually learned how to work the spell a lot more quickly than she had expected him to. He truly _was_ a gifted sorcerer.

"What's the plan?" Gordon asked.

"Hmm... Well, the nice thing about this spell is that we won't need much room. The portal will be roughly human-sized. We can probably even open it out in the living room."

"Just don't let your landlord find out that you're opening dimensional portals in the apartment... There's gotta be a rule about that sort of thing in the lease somewhere."

"Somewhere in all that fine print I didn't bother to read, probably."

"How will I know when you need to get back?"

"You'll know."

"That's nice and vague."

"Trust me."

"Okay, okay... What are you going to need?"

"Just the clothes I'm wearing. I won't be there long, like I already said. Just taking a look around."

Gordon sighed. "All right... When are you going?"

"Right now."

" _Now?_ "

"Now."

Lydia's eyes demonstrated a kind of determination Gordon just couldn't argue against. At a loss, he had no choice but to nod in agreement and follow her into the living room. She positioned herself in the most spacious area of the room and pointed to a spot on the floor.

"There. See if you can open the portal there."

The sorcerer looked at his sister, a bit surprised. "You want _me_ to do it?"

"I want to make sure you can before I go."

"Hmm. Okay, I'll try."

The sorcerer closed his eyes tightly, trying to block out all light in the room. He concentrated until the world seemed to drop away from around him. All he could feel or sense around him were the forces of nature intertwining with each other. This was the border of spacetime.

He heard his sister's voice echo all around him. "Concentrate on your destination," she advised. "The dimensional border will appear before you. Pick a spot and send all of your willpower into it. Break it!"

Back in the apartment, Gordon swung his arm in a wide circle several times. A swirling black vortex appeared in the room, about the height of an average person. Cross winds blew through the apartment, sending any loose papers flying.

Gordon, very pleased with himself, turned to his sister in time to see her flash him a thumbs up. "Great job! No time, gotta run! Be ready!"

With that, she ran toward the vortex, closing her eyes just as she was about to enter.

There was the feeling of speed, the rushing of wind. Her body jolted, as if breaking through something. Almost as quickly as it had begun, there was another rush of wind - this time, it actually felt cold. She opened her eyes.

She was falling. Quickly glancing above her, she caught sight of the vortex in the dark sky just before it started to close again. Remembering that she _was_ currently plummeting to the ground, she quickly caught herself with magic and gently lowered herself down the rest of the way.

The ground she landed on was blackened and broken. There _was_ plantlife, but it was all dead. The clouds above her were dark and forboding, constantly swirling around each other. The wide landscape Lydia found herself in was dotted with dead trees, whose branches swayed in the wind like the fingers of skeletons. The wind was chilly and sailed right through her clothes, sending chills all over her body.

She had no idea where she was.

"Oh, no," Lydia muttered out loud. "This can't be Hyrule. Agh, Gordon, did you screw up? Where the heck did you send me?"

But then the sorceress took another look. There was a building in the distance. It was broken and looked pretty hollowed out, but there was no mistaking in her mind as to what it _used_ to be. Lon Lon Ranch. Judging from it's position, she must be facing north. Looking farther ahead, the outline of Ganon's Tower loomed, darker and scarier than ever before. Tearing up, Lydia turned around partially, looking south. Though it was now supplemented by new cracks in the ground and new cliffs, her Dragon Slave crater was still there for all to see. Hyrule Field was almost completely destroyed. The ground was dead, and it looked as if it had suffered from great earthquakes - there were cliffs where there hadn't been cliffs before.

This... was Hyrule.

Unable to stop herself from crying, Lydia tried to imagine how it was possible for this much damage to have been done to the land in such a short time. The answer immediately came to her. After destroying the Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf must have taken the Triforce of Courage for himself. That would have given him the entire Triforce, to use as he pleased.

If Link had been there... this wouldn't have happened to the beautiful Hyrule.

Then, Lydia had another thought, as she wiped the tears from her eyes and willed herself to stop crying. Ganondorf's aim had been to destroy Hyrule completely, not just mess it up really badly. He had said it himself - he wanted to basically erase it and built it anew, free of human corruption or some stupidity like that. So... why did Hyrule, even in as bad a state as it was, continue to exist? Something must have gone wrong for the Gerudo man - something to mess up his plans.

Maybe they still had a shot to fix this!

The sorceress dried her eyes as a determined smile crawled across her face. She raised her head and said, "Don't worry, Link. I'll fix this. Somehow, someway... I'll fix this." She lowered her eyes again. "...It's the least I can do..."

Lydia walked north the whole time. She considered flying at first, as she normally would, but not knowing the kinds of dangers that were in this destroyed Hyrule, she decided it would be best to stay low. She walked north, flying only when it would help her get up or down a cliff quickly. She wasn't sure why she pressed decidedly north - something in her gut was telling her to check out Ganon's Tower first. Every fiber of her being told her to stay the hell away from that place, but every time she looked at it, she got the feeling that there was something there she needed to see. She was hesitant at first to listen to her gut on this one, but soon after decided that, having no clue as to what would be the best way to start, going there was just as productive as anything else, the hesitation was gone. Real quickly, though - the last thing she needed was trouble. Not before she was ready. She'd get in, have a quick look around, then leave.

She hadn't seen any people along the way.

Even in this wrecked Hyrule, Zora's River still flowed strong. That was a good sign, Lydia supposed, for what little good it did at this point. The gates to the castle Market still stood, as well. Lydia jumped over the river and swiftly walked through the gates, staying close to the wall.

The Market had been ruined for a really long time, even when she was last here, so it was nothing surprising for her. Pretty much the main difference was that the _rest_ of Hyrule was now similar to this. As soon as she was inside, she caught sight of the now-familiar ReDeads that littered the entire area. ...Lydia was horribly afraid of ReDeads, but the sight of something familiar, even this, was comforting, in a weird sort of way.

The best way to get through here without making a commotion was to fly over. That would be best, because it would also be a chance to test and see whether or not that anti-magic field was still active.

Forming her hands into a runic shape in front of her face, Lydia whispered a word of magic, and the ground fell from beneath her feet. Staying close to the wall, she lifted herself higher and higher into the air. As soon as she was at a comfortable height, she took off quickly, sailing right over the heads of all the ReDeads. They didn't even notice her.

Once through the Market, and on the way to where the Tower stood, Lydia smiled to herself. As she hoped, the anti-magic field had since been taken down, or had simply faded away over time. This would be quite helpful. Without bothering to head back to the ground, Lydia continued to fly in the direction of the castle.

The monstrous, dark building loomed over her before she was ready for it to loom over her. It looked just the same as it had the last time she had been there, with the dark tower and the scary clouds and the pit of lava below. That bridge of light the Sages had created back then, when they tried to escape from this very tower, had since disappeared. ...Speaking of the Sages, where had they been during all this? She wondered about the fate of Princess Zelda, and Malon, and Link the Goron, and Princess Ruto, and that guy that ran the Kakariko Tavern... Lydia only hoped she would find some signs of _somebody_ familiar after she came back with her brother later.

Again thankful for the absense of the anti-magic field, Lydia used magic to lift herself over the lava pit and into the entranceway to Ganon's Tower. Before entering, she thought it would be best to check to see if anyone was home, and sent her magic all around her. After several minutes of probing, she couldn't feel Ganondorf's presense in the tower. But she _did_ feel _something_. It was very faint, but something in this place was alive. Maybe a prisoner? All the more reason to actually go in, Lydia decided. Taking a deep breath, she started inside.

The girl walked through the dark hallways, trying to remember how the tower was set up. It was rather confusing, but the fact that she _had_ been there before helped a bit. It wasn't long before she came to a familiar crossroads. If she were to turn left, she would make it back to the dungeons, where the three of them had woken up after breaking out of the illusion. On the other hand, the hallway on the right led to a rather large room that had appeared to be a throne room of some kind - the kind of place Ganondorf would sit and read a book if he had been into that kind of thing.

Lydia started down the hallway on the left. Maybe whatever she had felt back at the entrance was down this way. However, before that fork in the road was out of sight, Lydia suddenly got the nagging feeling that she should turn around. It wasn't something she could understand or explain, but something was urging her to turn around and go the other way. While she was busy trying to figure out why such a thing would pop into her mind, she had already turned around and was heading back, and into the hallway that lead to the throne room. She didn't notice right away, but the closer she got to the throne room, the warmer the Sorcerer's Rune grew against her skin.

"Hmm?" she hummed when she finally noticed it. She took the necklace out from inside her shirt and asked it, "What's wrong? Am I supposed to go this way?"

As she continued to walk, the Rune grew even warmer in her hand. "...What is this?" she asked herself in wonder. "It's never done this before... It's like, it's _leading_ me or somethin'..."

Before she even realized it, she had started running.

Seconds later, the sorceress broke out into the throne room and skidded to a stop. Large chairs were scattered about, and the walls were decorated with draperies and banners that were in rather poor taste. A minimal amount of light poured in from one of the thin windows that lined the outer walls.

There was something against the north wall of the room that caught Lydia's attention. One of the large chairs was positioned so that it faced the wall there. But it obviously wasn't meant for wall-gazing. Secured into the wall, a few feet off the ground, was a human-sized purple crystal, that gave off a very faint light.

"...What in all the hells..?" Lydia wondered aloud, and started to walk toward it.

As she got closer, it became immediately apparent that something was inside it, also human-sized. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized it was a person. Breaking into a run again, she got closer, and stopped just in front of the chair that was there. One look at the inside of that crystal, and Lydia's entire world stopped. Weakly, she slumped down into the chair.

Link.

The well-preserved body of Link hung on display in Ganondorf's throne room. His head was lowered, and his face looked very peaceful, like he was sleeping. He even still had all of his equipment, save for the Master Sword, which was missing. The purple crystal he was encased in hummed quietly as it radiated a small amount of energy.

Lydia broke down completely just then. She sat in the chair for several minutes just _sobbing_. Not only had Ganondorf killed him, but then he put him on _display_ like some kind of hunting trophy. The scum probably sat in this very chair on occasion and gazed upon his prize with delight. It broke Lydia's heart that poor Link had been left like this for so long, and the very thought of it made her guilt only further worsen.

It was quite a while before Lydia was able to compose herself again, and even then, tears ran unchecked down her face. Finally, she looked up at the purple crystal with her teary eyes, and smiled at the boy that had sacrificed himself for her sake.

"Hi, there, Link," she said. "Long time no see, huh? ...It's been four years since I've seen you last. ...You look good."

A sob escaped, but she quickly gathered herself again.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to get back. Without the Ocarina of Time, it was a pretty difficult thing. But, I just figured it out. How to come back... And now, Gordon and I are going to fix Hyrule. Ganondorf really messed it up after you died, but don't you worry - we'll make things right again. I promised that to myself years ago, and now that you're here, I'll promise it to you, too." Lydia gathered some well-hidden strength and stood up. "First things first, though. You deserve better than this." She started to walk toward where the crystal was stuck in the wall. "I'll get you out of here."

As she was almost upon the crystal, Lydia noticed something. Link... looked different. He was still the same Link she remembered, but something was off. She hadn't noticed over in the chair, but now that she was closer, it was immediately apparent. His hair was overgrown and unkempt. His fingernails were long. Maybe she was imaging it, but somehow, he looked... a little older than she remembered him.

With a heart-stopping realization, Lydia suddenly thrust her hand forward and put it on the crystal. It felt cold to the touch. She closed her eyes and sent magic into it.

She felt a slow, definite heartbeat.

Staggering backward a few steps, she gazed in shock at the crystal before her. Link was alive. Even though she had been so certain back then and all through the last four years that he was dead, here he was before her, alive. Barely, but alive. She started to cry.

"Not only is he displaying you here," she shouted at the crystal, "but he's keeping you _alive_?!" She jumped forward again and put both hands on the crystal. "Oh, God..."

Once she was over the momentary shock, Lydia realized what it was she was dealing with. Link was alive. That changed _everything_.

Filled with sudden and new determination, Lydia clenched her teeth and spoke in a solid voice. "Link," she called out, "I need you to wake up! I don't think I can break this crystal by myself! I need you to wake up and help me!"

She closed her eyes, pushed against the crystal, and released magic into it with all the force she could muster.

* * *

It was dark. It was quiet. It was warm. It was safe.

In this place, there wasn't a past, present, or future. It just was. There was no happiness. There was no sadness. There was no fear.

Just peace.

He had been pulled out of this place several times and forced to endure extreme sadness, but every time he came back, all strife and sorrow was immediately forgotten, and things became peaceful again. He wanted to stay in this place forever.

And suddenly, in this place that was normally completely quiet, he heard her voice.

 _I need you to wake up and help me!_

"No," he replied. "It's nice here. I'm safe."

 _Please! I'm not leaving this place without you!_

"Why?"

 _We have to defeat him! We need you!_

"But I don't want to fight anymore..."

 _... Even if not to fight... I need you just to be here... I.. I don't want to live without you anymore._

"You need me...?"

 _Please, wake up... Link!_

He suddenly became aware of himself upon hearing his own name, something he had since forgotten. A wave of memories came back.

"Wait... Lydia?"

Light suddenly flooded into the darkness. The feeling of floating was gone, and his senses started to come back.

Link looked around. Everything was white. He seemed to be sitting on a ground that was invisible. He wasn't wearing any clothes, but oddly enough, didn't feel any embarrassment from that.

Just as he was about to call out to her, Lydia appeared before him. She was just a voice, and then just a mist, and then she slowly took form. Her face was so happy, and yet it looked like she had been crying for a long time.

The Hylian stood up. Lydia approached him.

"...You grew your hair out again," Link observed with a smile.

The girl giggled. "Yeah, I did. How do I look?"

"Beautiful. Although, from what I can tell, your figure hasn't filled out any more." He put his hands on his hips in a cocky way. "Not very girly after all, are you?"

With a happy sob, Lydia ran forward and leapt into his waiting arms. They stood there quietly, holding each other, exchanging thoughts without words. Lydia cried. Link cried.

"I know you don't want to fight anymore," Lydia eventually whispered. "But... even if just for me... will you come back?"

Link stroked her long hair and whispered back, "Of course. I don't want to leave you alone anymore."

The girl gently pushed away from him. His warm smile was so inviting. She felt so loved at that moment. Without saying anything, she rose up on her toes and gently kissed him.

There was a rush of wind, a flash of light, and then they were gone.

* * *

Back in the physical world, the purple crystal Lydia was concentrating so hard on suddenly cracked. Her eyes snapped open as the cracking spread, slowly at first, then quickly. All at once, the crystal shattered. Link limply fell off the wall and into Lydia's waiting arms as shards of the crystal flew all over the room. A few even managed to sail out of the far window.

Link was suprisingly heavy, so Lydia had no choice but to lower him to the ground immediately, as carefully as she could. She sat on the floor next to him, and cradled his head with her hand. He was still unconscious. She quickly grew worried. He had freely accepted to return to the physical world... he should have awakened right away...

Suddenly, Lydia felt something warm and wet soaking into her pants. Looking down, she saw red blood spreading everywhere. Momentarily forgetting to breathe, she gently pulled back part of Link's torn, stained tunic.

She managed to gasp. "That wound... it's still..."

The injury he had sustained from Ganondorf's strike all that time ago, the injury that Lydia _thought_ had killed him, was still there, and from the looks of things, still fresh.

Horrified, Lydia glanced at the purple shards that lay all over the room. "Oh, God," she whispered, "that crystal was what was keeping you alive?!"

The pool of blood continued to spread, soaking his shirt anew. If Lydia didn't do something right _now_ , Link was really going to die this time. And probably in a matter of minutes.

Just as she was about to panic, Lydia remembered the very thing she had been talking to her brother about earlier in that day. Yes, that was the only thing - the new variation of the Phoenix Flare she had created. She created it with Link in mind, but didn't think she'd actually have a second chance to use it on him.

But, she had never tested it before... it was just a spell on paper at this point.

No time to think about it, she quickly decided, scolding herself for hesitating. Gritting her teeth, she rested both of her hands on Link's chest and concentrated hard. She chanted quickly, without hesitation.

 **"Bird of purity, reborn from flames,  
against whom no evil could ever stand..."**

 **"In the name of justice and the forces of nature,  
I summon thee from the depths of time itself!"**

 **"Have no pity on the evil that stands in my way!  
Enfuse me with power! Let your strength become mine!"**

 **"To wipe it from the face of this Earth,  
to deliver unto it the ultimate fate!"**

She screamed as loudly as she could.

 ** _"PHOENIX FLARE...REGENERATION!"_**

A pair of great wings grew from Lydia's back as the room was filled with wind and loose white magic. Once again, the great white phoenix emerged from the girl's body. Only, this time, it didn't take off into the air. Instead, it stood behind her, beating its large wings. It let out a loud call that echoed throughout the entire tower.

In the middle of all the swirling magic, Lydia sat on her knees, keeping her hands on Link, her eyes tightly shut in some sort of prayer. She wasn't alone. Maya sat next to her, much in the same way. She reached forward and put her hands on top of Lydia's.

The phoenix beat its great wings once, and then leapt over where Lydia sat. It dove headfirst on the spot where Link lay, and exploded in a rush of white magic.

Magic poured out of each and every window of Ganon's Tower, and lit up all of Northern Hyrule. During the peak of the spell, the clouds above the Tower were forced to part, momentarily letting sunlight through, probably for the first time in about eleven years.

When the spell finally died down, Maya was gone, and the room was dark once more. Lydia slumped forward in exhaustion, but managed to keep herself from passing out. She breathed heavily as beads of sweat ran down her nose and fell onto the cold stone floor of the Tower.

The girl raised her eyes. Had it worked?

The pool of blood was no longer expanding, and Link's breathing had steadied. Lydia reached forward with a shaky hand and pulled back the torn tunic again.

The wound had closed.

A tear of happiness joined the beads of sweat on the floor, and Lydia said, smiling, "...I think you'll be okay now."

She swallowed, then let her head flop back. She took a deep breath and screamed at the ceiling. "Gordon!" she yelled. "I need the portal opened!"

Lydia sat Link up, and swung his arm around her shoulders. Using every ounce of strength she could muster, she stood the both of them up. Her legs shook under Link's weight, but thanks to some handy adrenalin that happened to be present, she managed to stay standing. Just when she felt like her legs were going to give out, there was a rush of wind through the room, and a black vortex appeared before her. It swirled invitingly.

"Good boy," the girl whispered. She worked up some more strength, and walked through.

Back in Lydia's apartment, Gordon watched the vortex that he had created as soon as he heard his sister's voice in his head. It had been swirling there for several seconds, and nothing had happened. She had better hurry, he thought. That portal wasn't going to stay open more than a few more seconds.

Something big stepped through as the portal began to close. Gordon stepped back, a little surprised. Had a stray creature walked into the portal? When the portal closed and the light faded, Gordon saw that it wasn't a large creature, but was two people. Lydia and... _Link?!_

Gordon's breath caught in his throat as he watched his sister struggle under the weight of Link's body. "L-Lydia, what-"

She looked up with tears in her eyes. "He's alive!"

"But... how can that be?!"

The girl grunted and shifted her weight. "In a minute, in a minute! Help me, he's heavy!"

After taking another few seconds to get over his shock, Gordon ran over and swung Link's other arm around his shoulders, and helped his sister carry him over to the couch. Once the Hylian had been laid down, Lydia went to retrieve pillows, barking orders along the way. "Kid, get those clothes off him!"

There was a lot of hustle and bustle in the apartment for several minutes. While Lydia was busy gathering pillows and getting some washclothes and a bowl of water ready, Gordon worked both of Link's shirts off, as well as his heavy boots and any equipment he was carrying. While pulling a knit blanket up to Link's waist, Gordon couldn't take his eyes off the scar that now diagonally crossed his torso. That had to be the wound from that time... But even though it was closed, it still looked fresh - the skin around it was still bruised. That would mean that the wound closed very recently. How could that be?

His sister returned to the room just then, her arms full of pillows. She tucked two behind Link's head, and fretted over him for several moments until she was _positive_ he was comfortable. After disappearing from the room again, she soon reappeared carrying a bowl of warm water and several washcloths. She sat down on the floor beside her brother and dipped one of the washclothes into the bowl. She squeezed the excess water out, then started to gently wash the dried blood off of Link whereever she could find it.

Gordon was still bewildered, and he caught himself staring at Link's sleeping form in amazement. ...All these years, he and Lydia had been completely convinced that Link was dead. And now, here he was again, very much alive. It was like a miracle.

He glanced over and noticed that his sister, while still attentive to her work, was silently crying. The boy smiled. He felt overwhelming happiness for her.

"So," he whispered to her, "I thought you were just going to take a look around."

With a teary-eyed smile, Lydia paused long enough to accept a loving hug from her brother.

* * *

Though he _really_ didn't feel up to it, Link forced himself to open his eyes. His entire body ached - simply breathing was painful.

He didn't recognize where he was. It was a small, yet open room, with white walls and a white ceiling. Some pictures hung on the wall, and whatever he was stretched out on felt soft. Off to his right was a large window that had a curtain pulled in front of it. Though that was the case, some light was managing to work its way in. Judging from the color, it was the light of a very early dawn.

The cool washcloth that was resting on his forehead fell off as soon as he worked up the strength to raise his head and get a better look around. Most of his clothes seemed to be gone, but he was under a warm blanket. More importantly, he wasn't alone in that white room. Lydia was sitting there, with her head resting against the couch cushion, fast asleep. Her glasses had partially fallen off, and her hand was firmly clasped to Link's.

Then... back then... he hadn't just imagined it. He was finally free. Lydia had finally come back, and had freed him from...

He pushed it out of his mind for now. Carefully so as to not wake the sleeping girl, Link worked himself up into a sitting position, as much as it hurt to do so. This place... it must have been Lydia's world. It just didn't feel the same as Hyrule would. ...Not to mention the high-tech gadgets that lay around the room, which kinda gave it away. There was a small box on a shelf that had glowing red numbers on it. Link watched the numbers change long enough to safely assume that it was some kind of clock. According to what it said, it was just after five in the morning.

In the center of the room, against the wall, there was a big black box with a glassy front. Link had no idea what that could be.

Link heard some shuffling in a nearby hallway, and a very tired-looking Gordon appeared. The Hylian was momentarily shocked at how much the boy had grown since he last saw him. The boy stopped mid-yawn when he realized Link was sitting up and looking at him.

Gordon smiled and walked around the couch. His face softened only further when he saw his sister asleep there like that.

"She hasn't left your side all night," he whispered to Link. "She kept on fretting about this or that, worrying out loud whether or not you were going to be okay."

Link felt his throat tighten as his mind threatened to make him start to cry, and forced it back again. He looked back up at his old comrade. It looked like he had been up most of the night, too.

"...How long has it been?" he asked Gordon.

The boy's face fell. "Four years... Almost to the day, actually."

"Four years..." Link's face fell. "Has it really only been four years? I could have sworn it was longer."

"Link... what happened?"

The Hylian looked up again. Surprisingly, he was smiling. "That can wait, can't it?" he asked. "You look exhausted."

"Heh. Yeah, I guess I am."

"Go and get some rest. I'm still tired, too."

Gordon smiled, and quietly walked around his sleeping sister, bending down to quickly hug Link before leaving. "It's good to have you back."

"Thanks."

The boy straightened up again, carefully moved around his sister again, and quietly retired to the bedroom in the back, leaving Link alone again.

The Hylian looked down at Lydia's sleeping form as she rested peacefully. Her grip on his hand momentarily tightened, then loosened again. He gently wriggled his hand out of her grasp, then reached up and touched her face. He whispered her name.

She groggily opened an eye, and mumbled something about not wanting to go to work so early. Then, suddenly aware of herself, her eyes snapped open and she sat up straight. Slowly, she turned and saw Link looking down at her. She started to cry again, and jumped up into his arms. At first, she held him so tightly that it actually hurt him. She kept repeating his name between sobs, burying her face under his chin.

"Thank God..." she whispered at one point.

Link absently wiped a stray tear off of her face. "Are you all right down there?" He felt her nod.

"I thought I had lost you forever..." her quiet voice said. "But, here you are. You came back to me."

"Of course. What, did you think I'd let you beat Ganondorf by yourself and take all the credit?"

Lydia laughed, in spite of herself. "Now you're just making fun of me."

Both were quiet for several minutes. Lydia finally asked, "Why?"

"Hmm?"

"Why did you do something so stupid? You must have known you would get hurt..."

"I wanted to. That's what you do when you love somebody. What would you have done if you were me?"

She was quiet for a moment. "The same thing, I suppose," she finally answered. "But, even so... you were a damn fool for doing that. Do you have any idea what kind of grief I went through?"

"Sorry."

"Don't ever, _ever_ do that again. ...I couldn't bare losing you twice."

"Okay. Sorry."

"Good. ... Thanks for saving me..."

"You owe me one, Lyd."

"Yeah, I do." She chuckled quietly. "Heh, nobody but you calls me by that nickname. ...I thought I'd never hear it again."

"Well, hopefully, from now on, you'll hear it so much that you'll get sick of it."

"I hope so."

Another several minutes passed, and Link said, "Gordon said you've been here all night. You should get some rest."

The girl nodded and pushed away from him. "You're right."

She then threw herself into the gap between Link and the back cushions of the couch, somehow managing to squeeze herself in there, despite how little room there really was.

Link moved over as far as he could without actually falling off the couch and tried to keep himself from laughing. "...That's not exactly what I meant."

"I don't care," was her cocky reply as she made herself comfortable, resting her head on his shoulder.

Sighing in defeat, Link reached up and removed Lydia's glasses, and set them on the floor beside the couch. Clinging to him tightly, she was asleep in minutes.

Link lay his head back on the pillows again and stared at the ceiling. There was so much running through his mind. A lot had happened in the four years that had passed since then... Lydia saw the way he was in Ganon's Tower, and probably assumed he had been asleep the whole time, like the first time something like this had happened. But that wasn't the case. There was a lot he remembered... and lot of mental torture he was put through... There was so much to tell them...

But that could all wait until morning. There was no need to worry the two of them until they've had some much-deserved rest. In the morning, there would be a lot of stories to tell...

Link soon drifted off to sleep, and for the first time in a long time, there were no nightmares of his beloved Hyrule being slowly and systematically destroyed. The four-year-long nightmare was over, and he was reunited with the person he had most yearned to see that whole time. At least for tonight, he was truly at peace.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Something wasn't right.

He knew something wasn't right the minute he got back to the Tower.

The sensation of white magic, a specific kind that he hadn't sensed since that day four years ago, was all over the place. It was the same... and somehow different. And as soon as he determined in which room it was strongest, he knew exactly what happened.

The man sprinted up to the room in question, growling to himself the entire time. He broke out of the hallway and immediately turned his gaze to where his prize had once been. The purple crystal where he had been keeping that boy. Sure enough, the crystal was no more - pieces of it were all over the room. The boy was nowhere in sight, and the man couldn't sense his presense at all. The remaining sense of white magic of that kind he remembered so clearly was weighing heavily in the air.

No doubt about it. One or both of them had found a way to return here from where he had sent them. And, judging from the magic remnants, they had managed to keep the boy alive outside of the crystal, and made their escape already.

Perhaps not swallowing his pride and finishing off the kid back then instead of hanging him on the wall like a trophy had been a mistake after all. But no matter. What was done was done.

The man stomped over to the window and gazed out at the dark, shadowy world he had created for himself. He had all the power he desired, even if his power _was_ hampered by what that brat of a princess had done before disappearing. Still, what he had was more than enough, and if not for one thing, he wouldn't be threatened by the fact that those kids had gotten back together. That one thing was the Master Sword. Even with all of the power he had obtained, the Master Sword was still a threat to him. After sending those other two kids back where they came from by destroying the Ocarina of Time, he had planned on taking that blasted sword and locking it away somewhere, but mere seconds after the Ocarina was destroyed, the sword had faded away. Disappeared into thin air, leaving behind only little specs of light, that soon faded as well.

To this day, he didn't know where the sword had gone. He was sure it still existed somewhere, but he hadn't found it.

And now, for the first time in a very long time, he was worried. If those kids found the sword before he did, he would have a serious problem.

He hadn't been able to find Princess Zelda, either. After she stole _that_ from him, she disappeared into the night and had yet to show herself again. He wanted it back, and would stop at nothing until he found her again.

And those blasted sages continued to be an annoyance... them and their little pockets of safety for whomever still remained alive in this destroyed Hyrule.

He couldn't just sit in the Tower feeling proud of himself anymore. If one wants to keep a good thing going, one has to work to _keep_ it going. There were a few messes to clean up... and the fact that the boy escaped could set things into motion that would bring him down. He wasn't about to allow that.

Until they appeared, though, all he could do was continue to search for the princess, and the sword. He would bide his time for now.

With his cape swirling around him, the evil king Ganondorf turned around and disappeared back into his dark tower.

* * *

"Take that pan off the burner!" Gordon urged his sister. "You're gonna torch our breakfast!"

"Look, man, Mom's eggs were always underdone," Lydia replied, keeping the frying pan firmly placed on the hot stove. "I like mine thoroughly cooked."

"That's not steam! It's _smoke_!"

"Look, just go away. I've got things under control. Go watch TV or something. I'll handle the kitchen."

"So, should I call the fire department _now_ , or what?"

Link appeared in the kitchen doorway just then. His hair hung loose, messy from a night's sleep. He wore only a pair of jeans and all of the bandages that were wrapped all the way around his torso. "What's going on in here?" he asked, resting one arm up on the door frame. Right away, his nose twisted as it caught the scent of burning food.

"Lydia's about to burn down the apartment," Gordon replied in an annoyed tone.

The girl scoffed, shifting the frying pan a bit on the stove's burner. "Oh, I am not."

The Hylian took a look at what Lydia was doing, and caught sight of some scrambled eggs that were turning black fairly rapidly. "Actually, Lyd, I think those _are_ burning..."

"At least this way you know they're safe to eat!" she insisted.

"Seriously, Lydia," Gordon muttered, "You're cooking ashes now."

" _Okay_ , so they're a bit overdone. Only because you've been distracting me. But, relax, I'm not about to burn the place down."

With timing that was nothing short of mocking, the food in the pan suddenly burst into flames. Smoke billowed up into the overhead vent as Lydia jumped back, swearing loudly, holding her arms up in front of her face.

" **Ext Ball!** " Gordon shouted, and a little black ball of energy appeared over the mini-bonfire, which then sucked the flames into itself. The boy grabbed a hand towel and wrapped it around the pan handle, tossed it into the sink, and turned on the water. Both of the boys stared at Lydia blankly as steam poured from the sink while the pan cooled.

Moving slowly, as if she would somehow avoid the stares if she did so, Lydia reached over and turned the stove off. She smiled as innocently as she could.

"...See? We didn't need the fire department." She giggled.

Gordon threw his arms up in the air and groaned loudly. "Okay, out, out!" he shouted, pushing his sister out of the kitchen, to where Link was still standing, who was trying to disguise his laughter as coughing from the smoke. "Go do something that does NOT require fire. I'll make french toast. Go, go, beat it!"

"Come on, Lyd," Link said, leading Lydia by the shoulders away from the kitchen and the angry Gordon. "Let's watch TV for a while. That's fairly non-destructive, right?"

"Can I _help_ it that I'm a walking disaster in the kitchen?!" Lydia groaned as she dropped down onto the couch. "I mean, I _try_..."

Link opened the large windows that lead out to the wooden balcony, to let some of the smoke out. He then sat in the chair adjacent to the couch, slowly and carefully, as if trying to make sure something inside him didn't break on the way down. Once safely in the chair, he leaned back and said with a laugh, "Well, you're not exactly used to using fire in moderation."

Gordon's voice sailed out from the kitchen, which was now finally starting to air out. "She's not used to doing _anything_ in moderation!"

"Shut up, man," Lydia shouted right back, "or you're going to wake up one morning hanging off the side of the balcony by your ankles!"

Link laughed again. "Easy, easy," he coaxed as he looked on all sides of where he was sitting. "Uh... where's that thing that makes the TV go on...?"

"Oh, you mean the remote?" Lydia asked. "Actually, I dunno... Oh, here we go. Between the couch cushions."

She pushed the power button and the TV hummed to life. After flipping through several channels of soaps and news, she finally stopped on a Simpsons rerun. Link seemed to enjoy that show, even though he had to ask Lydia to explain the jokes half the time, since he wasn't that familiar with her world yet. He was mostly amused by the physical comedy, because he said it reminded him of how the three of them always acted during their more light-spirited, simpler days. Lydia's random assults on either of them or whatnot.

Speaking of the old days... Lydia more at peace now than she had been in years. Even though she had been acting irritated all throughout the scene in the kitchen and up until now, she was actually very happy. Link was alive and okay - the old group was back together, and until Link recovered, they could afford to be carefree here in the safety of Lydia's apartment. It was very refreshing.

It had been a little more than a week since Lydia had gone into Hyrule and found Link somehow alive. The first couple of days after she brought him back to this world were tough for him physically, since he was so severely injured. Even though Lydia's spell had closed the wound, his body was still in a state of shock from the injury. He couldn't leave the couch on his own. Every time he got hungry, or needed to make a bathroom trip, he needed help just to move, nevermind _walk_.

But he was doing much better now... able to get _himself_ up and around the apartment when he needed to. His recovery ability was already remarkable, nevermind the assistance he'd been getting from the periodic healing spells throughout the week. He was feeling so much better that, while still sore, he felt ready to go back to Hyrule. They would probably wait another few days before making plans like that, but Link was ready. Something was motivating him that he hadn't talked about yet...

While Link spent the week recovering, when not helping him to do so, the two sorcerers kept busy.

The first thing was Link's clothes. His tunic was messed up beyond repair - horribly torn and stained. Since their mother was good with that kind of thing, Gordon took the tunic home with him, hoping she could make a replacement for him. Absolutely _elated_ to hear that Link was somehow alive after all, she gladly accepted, and said she'd even make some improvements to the outfit. She was due to be finished with it in a day or two from now. Later that same day, Gordon returned to the apartment, but not before stopping at a department store and buying Link a few sets of clothes to wear in the meantime. Lydia also spent almost an hour trimming his hair and making it look nice again, since it had become so overgrown.

Any spare time during the week was spent in the spellbooks. The most important thing at this point was to figure out how to use that dimension-breaching spell in reverse, so that _both_ of them could go to Hyrule. At the present time, they still hadn't gotten it figured out - the only thing they'd accomplished was to modify the spell enough to not only be able to cross space, but time, as well, like they used to do with the Master Sword. But Gordon was certain that the solution to the reverse-portal-opening problem could be pinned down in another week or two, so he decided that he would remain here to continue work on that, and Lydia would go back to Hyrule as soon as Link was well enough.

As for going back to Hyrule, like already mentioned, Link was anxious... and yet Lydia got the feeling that he, at the same time, didn't want to.

A couple days after being brought to this world, he acted like he was going to finally tell them what had happened during those last four years when he was imprisoned in Ganon's Tower... but he backed off at the last minute, as if shying away from a really painful memory.

Even though she knew she shouldn't pry, Lydia tried a couple more times during that week to get him to tell her what had happened, because it was obvious that something DID happen. But he didn't budge. He always changed the subject or just wandered away.

He had yet to say anything.

Lydia left it alone for now. The time would come, and she knew it. It just wasn't now.

Another pressing question was what had happened to the Master Sword. Link didn't have it when Lydia found him. He had everything else, but the sword was missing. The sheath was still in his possession, but it was empty. Obviously, it had been stolen by someone. Perhaps Ganondorf was keeping it somewhere. If he had it, stealing it back was really high on the priority list, since Link confirmed that he no longer had the Triforce of Courage. Ganondorf had indeed taken it for himself. Getting the Master Sword was essential - they needed that edge in the battle that would undoubtedly come.

What about if they couldn't get the sword back right away? They'd still need another weapon for Link in the meantime, and just _any_ sword probably wasn't going to cut it.

There was also the Ocarina of Time. Lydia knew full well that one couldn't just dust a magical artifact like that - especially the Ocarina. She knew Maya had made sure of that. It could be broken up, but not completely destroyed. Meaning, the pieces of the shattered Ocarina probably still existed somewhere. Perhaps Ganondorf had those as well, or perhaps they were disregarded, buried in the eroded dirt somewhere in Hyrule Field. Lydia doubted the broken Ocarina would be of much use, but if the situation came up where it would be required, it was good to know that the Ocarina could be somehow recovered.

Also... the people of Hyrule. It was true that Lydia had only seen the tip of the iceberg, but Hyrule seemed pretty deserted. Where was everyone? Dead, or simply in hiding? What had become of Zelda and the sages?

So many questions, not enough answers. But one thing was absolutely certain. The only way to restore Hyrule to its previous state was to defeat Ganondorf and get the Triforce. According to the old legends, if someone with a good heart obtains the Triforce, peace will be brought to the world.

Heh, if only it were that easy, Lydia thought to herself.

"Food!"

Gordon's call from the kitchen interrupted her thoughts. The kid was done making breakfast already?

Link was the first one up and seated at the dining table. Lydia couldn't help but smile as she sat next to him.

"It's good to see that you've got your appetite back," she said. "You were pretty thin when I found you, but you're looking much more healthy now."

"Yes, I don't suppose one looks all that great when that close to death." Suddenly realizing that that reply was a little too cryptic, Link smiled playfully to brighten things back up. "Yeah, so, now you can't hog all the food for yourself. You've got competition again."

"Oh, pfft. You're still in recovery. Think I'd be shallow enough to try to eat _your_ fair share as well as my own?" she asked as Gordon set two plates of french toast down in front of each of them. Lydia picked up her fork and eyeballed Link's plate. "...Yeah, you'd be right. Gimmie." She stabbed one of the pieces of toast on Link's plate and put it on her own.

Link scoffed loudly.

Gordon rolled his eyes and wandered back into the kitchen for the syrup, as well as his own plate of food.

"I can't believe you sometimes," Link grumbled.

The girl giggled. "You're too healthy now. You're officially no longer immune to my acts of selfishness," she said, laughing as she made fun of herself. "Not gonna go easy on you anymore."

"Too bad for me, I guess. ...Say, about what time is it now?"

"Oh, it's, uh..." She turned to look at the clock in the living room. Almost noon. Looks like they were having breakfast for lunch. Oh well.

She turned back to the table. "It's almost noon," she reported. "Kinda late for french toa-" She stopped speaking when she realized that her plate had been robbed of one piece of toast, which Link was now eating, acting as if nothing was wrong.

She eyeballed him. "You sly jerk. That was not very nice."

"Fire with fire," he replied indifferently. "Eat your _own_ breakfast."

"Serves you right," Gordon said, sitting down across from them with his own plate.

Lydia smiled to herself and went to work on her food.

It was several minutes before anyone said anything of any significance. It was Gordon that finally said something that mattered. "Link," he asked, "how are you doing? Overall?"

"Hmm? Oh, I feel quite well," the Hylian replied, mopping up the leftover syrup with the last bit of his toast. "I could go back anytime."

"Then, why don't you two go back to Hyrule tomorrow?"

Both Lydia and Link froze, staring at Gordon.

"Tomorrow?" Lydia asked. "I know Link _says_ he's ready, and I may even agree, given he has another night's sleep to recover a little more, but doesn't that seem a bit soon?"

"You're right. But, when you think about it, _any_ time is going to seem like it's too soon, right?"

The other two looked at each other. With a sigh, Link nodded his head in agreement.

"I got a call this morning," Gordon continued. "Your new tunic is ready. So, I think I'll go home and stay there tonight. I'll come back here tomorrow to continue working with the spellbooks."

Lydia pushed her plate away, signaling she was done. "Working on getting the reverse of that spell figured out?"

"Not only that."

"...Not only that?"

Link raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "What else are you working on?"

Gordon pushed his plate away and rested his elbows on the table. "Well, Lydia and I theorized that Ganondorf took the Master Sword. That made some sense at first, but I get this feeling that it's not as easy as all that. ...I think it may take some time to get the Master Sword back."

"Even if he's just got it locked up in his tower somewhere?" Lydia asked.

"Don't you think he'd want it as far away from himself as possible?"

"Hmm."

"It may take us time to find it. Therefore, I think we need to find a replacement weapon for Link in the meantime."

Link looked over at Lydia. "Does this world have weapon shops?"

"Eh, nothing that's not mostly decorative," she replied, "but a regular sword isn't going to cut it." She returned her gaze on her brother. "I think I see where you're going with this."

"Yeah. We need to find another sword that has some kind of magical qualities."

"That can't be easy. What do you suggest?"

"Well, you know how we should be able to not only cross dimensions now, but time as well, if necessary?"

"I'd rather avoid it, since time travel can get messy and... wait, are you suggesting we travel to another _time_ to find another magic sword?"

"If it comes down to it, yes."

Lydia raked her fingers through her hair. "Oh, _man_..."

Link seemed unaffected by the idea of it. "Would you be able to find one?"

"That's what I'm going to work on when I come back tomorrow," the sorcerer replied, "after I send you two back to Hyrule. We can't make any moves until we have a way to fight, so the best thing to do may be for you two to have a more careful look around Hyrule, and see what's going on, until I find a suitable replacement for the Master Sword somewhere in the time stream."

"Man, I don't like this," Lydia complained. "Too many things can go wrong..."

"Do you have another plan?"

"Of course not. Just thinking out loud."

Link looked over at her. "I think your brother's plan is a good one. Yes, it's a little risky... but it's all we can do at this point."

"You're right. I know."

The Hylian looked at Gordon again, and asked, "How long do you think it would take?"

"Well, assuming I'm _capable_ of raking through the time stream like that... A thorough search would probably take a couple of days."

"That should give us enough time to find out more about what's going on back in Hyrule, so we'll be better prepared for what's coming later."

"Hopefully."

With that, Gordon stood up and said, "I think I'll go now. I really need to go home and rest my mind for a day."

"Okay," his sister replied, also standing. "Yeah, I think I'm going to rest, too. We've both worked pretty hard this week. Thanks for sticking with me for so long."

"You bet. I'm just glad I could be of help for a change," he said as he put his shoes on and fumbled for the keys to his truck.

"Oh, please. You've always been helpful. You're the smart one, remember?"

"Heh, yeah, I guess. What _would_ you do without me?"

"Yeah, yeah, now beat it," she said, playfully shoving her brother out into the hallway. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Right. Rest well." With that, the boy turned and headed down the stairs.

Stretching her arms up over her head, Lydia wandered back into the apartment, quietly walking back to where she had left Link. She re-entered the dining room area and was about to ask him if he wanted to watch a movie or something, but stopped short. Link was still sitting in the chair with his arms crossed, but something about his eyes was different, as they stared unfocused at his breakfast plate. They were filled with worry, fear... He was thinking about something very intently. She had seen that look before - the one he always got when asked about what happened to him... The room was very silent - the only sound that reached her ears was the sound of Gordon's monstrous vehicle starting up outside.

Lydia cleared her throat, and Link looked up at her, shaken out of his momentary trance.

"You okay?" she asked him.

"Yeah," he replied with a soft smile. "Just thinking..."

"What about?"

Link said nothing. His smile faded, and he stood up from the chair. He passed her without saying anything, and sank into the living room couch. When the TV was turned on, it was obvious to Lydia that the conversation was over.

Denied again.

Link wasn't normally the type of person to keep things from her. Whatever it was that was causing him so much worry and upset must have been something pretty serious for him to not want to talk about it. Lydia would just have to accept that he wasn't going to talk until he was ready. Even though, being the type of person she was, she wasn't satisfied with that, she was just going to have to believe in him.

As she started to clean up the breakfast dishes, she thought about how all she could do was be as supportive as possible when he _was_ ready.

She dropped the dishes into the sink, and was going to clean them, but lazed out, and wandered into the living room to watch TV with Link instead. She sat down on the couch next to him as he flipped through the channels, looking for something interesting to watch. Something to get his mind off of whatever he was thinking.

Something on the Discovery Channel must've intrigued him, because that's where he stopped, setting the remote down on arm of the couch and leaning back. After a few minutes, Lydia noticed that he was looking at the TV screen, but didn't appear to really be _watching_ what was on. His mind seemed to be on something else still.

"Hey..." she coaxed.

"I'm sorry," he said suddenly.

With a soft sigh and a smile, Lydia reached over for his hand. "I can't even begin to imagine what happened to you. But don't feel pressured. I'll listen when you're ready. When you're ready, okay?"

Link finally smiled a bit. "You're really weird. Somehow, you pick on me so much, and yet, you manage to take such good care of me at the same time."

She giggled. "Girls are good at that."

He reached around and put his arm around her. "Thanks for everything."

Lydia moved herself closer and leaned her head on his shoulder. "You bet. You owe me bigtime for this week, though," she said playfully.

"Yeah. I know."

The sound of a laughing hyena filled the room as the TV showed a pack of them sitting around in the shade.

"...What in the _world_...?" Link wondered out loud.

"Hyenas. Nature's jokers."

"Oh. Relatives of yours, then?"

"Look, don't make me throw you out that window. Because I _will_."

The afternoon continued much like this. Just the two of them, relaxing... Each trying to at least momentarily forget what they were going to be facing tomorrow. Neither was much looking forward to it, but knew what had to be done. At least they still had one more day to be carefree before the world was once again upon their shoulders.

* * *

"Ugh. Enough for now."

Lydia scowled at the piles and piles of papers and books scattered across her desk. She had spent the majority of the afternoon and early evening studying them and taking notes to leave for Gordon to look at after she and Link went back to Hyrule. Maybe she could help him get a headstart on what still needed to be done. But she had been doing it for several hours without a break and her eyes were starting to involuntarily flutter in and out of focus. Taking that as the sign to stop, she slowly got to her feet, trying in vain to rearrange the papers in some way that would make sense to someone who hadn't been working with them first-hand. She felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder, just below the neck, and tried to massage it out with her left hand.

She looked down upon her work, however cluttery and disorganized, with a smile of satisfaction. Maybe Gordon would be able to make sense of all this. They were close to getting the dimensional-travelling spell to work in reverse. Very close. There were just a few small little details to work out, and, unfortunately, those little details were proving to be quite evasive. But if they didn't take the time to work those details out, the spell could go horribly wrong and put them at the bottom of an ocean or something. Better safe than sorry.

A thought of Link crossed her mind just then, and Lydia wondered what he had been doing all afternoon, while she had been in the spare bedroom shuffling through papers. She had heard him channel-flipping until a couple hours ago, when things grew quiet. Maybe he was taking a nap - he sometimes did that around this time of day. Normally she would have gone out to check on him, but she was so involved in what she was doing at the time that she didn't dare stop halfway, for fear of losing her place and needing to waste two hours finding it again.

The same instant she thought of Link, she also felt a pang of guilt in her stomach. She hadn't taken Link outside nearly enough. He had been outside a few times in the last couple of days, but for the most part, he was always closed into this apartment, which must've felt so small to him, who was used to wide open spaces. He always seemed so refreshed after a trip outside. Lydia couldn't help but grin as she remembered his first car ride. She had to go for some groceries and he asked to come. After making sure that his long ears were properly concealed by a hat, to avoid attracting the attention of everybody on the street, she introduced him to her Buick. He was scared to death, with one hand gripping the seat and the other digging into the door, looking ready to bail out at any moment. Lydia had thought it was hilarious, and even went as far as to suggest that maybe it would feel more natural to him if he were to ride on the roof instead. He was quick to insist that he was fine.

Stretching her arms over her head as she walked, Lydia finally emerged from the room and turned down the hallway that led to the living area. To her surprise, the room was empty as well as quiet. As her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion, she checked the rest of the rooms in the apartment, but Link was still nowhere to be found.

"What the hell...?" she asked out loud.

At a run, she headed for the door, somehow stumbling into her shoes along the way. She ducked into the hallway outside of her apartment and headed down the three flights of stairs as quickly as she could. The outside door appeared around the corner as soon as she was on the ground floor. She seized the doorknob and shoved the door open with her shoulder, breaking out into the dim light of sunset. Skidding to a stop, she needn't look far - Link was seated on the curb of the parking lot with his legs stretched out in front of him, looking startled, obviously wondering why Lydia was in such a hurry. He was dressed in the same jeans from that morning, but had now added a loose-fitting white T-shirt, and his ears were tucked into an old Detroit Tigers baseball cap, from which his long hair was sticking out in all directions.

"What's going on?" he asked, starting to stand up.

"Nothing," Lydia answered immediately. "I was looking for you. Wondered where you had gone."

Sitting back down and stretching out again, Link replied, "Sorry. You just looked so involved in what you were doing that I didn't want to bother you."

"You're so damn quiet, I didn't even hear you leave."

"Sorry about that."

"Where've you been? Have you been here the whole time?"

"Hm? Oh, no, I've been out walking. Getting some fresh air." His face lowered to look at his feet. "Just thinking."

Lydia's heart softened. Thinking about whatever was bothering him so much, no doubt.

"Hey," she said, "I'm thinking of ordering something for dinner. Hungry?"

Link seemed to forget whatever was on his mind, and his face brightened up again. "I'm always hungry."

He followed her inside and up the stairs, back to the apartment. As soon as he was inside, he took the hat off and dropped it on the couch, and spent a minute raking his fingers through his hair, which was still hanging loose, and rubbing his ears a bit to get the blood flowing again. Keeping them tucked into that hat was uncomfortable.

He heard Lydia's voice sail out of her bedroom at the far end of the hallway. "I'm thinking of ordering pizza. You cool with that?"

"What's pizza?" he called back as he absent-mindedly straightened the placemats on the table.

She laughed. "You have much to learn about my world."

The girl wandered back out to the living room carrying the little device that she had called a "sell fone" or whatever it was. It made little beeping sounds as she pressed the buttons in a sequence that she seemed to have memorized, then talked into it about the "pizza" she was getting for them.

Link wandered away as she talked, and suddenly the balcony looked very inviting. Excusing himself, he opened the glass door, stepped outside, and closed it behind him. He rested his arms on the wooden railing and watched the sunset, a grim expression on his face once again.

Back inside, Lydia hung up the phone and put it down on the table next to her. "About fifteen minutes. Pretty good for this time of week," she said aloud, not realizing she was alone until after she had finished saying it. Link had gone out onto the balcony. She crossed the room and slid the door open.

"Everything okay?" she asked.

"Mmm-hmm," was the barely-audible response.

With her jaw set, Lydia stepped out onto the balcony herself and closed the door. She stood next to him and rested her arms on the railing, much like he was doing. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again right away. If she wanted anything to happen, she wanted _him_ to start it. So, she just occupied herself for now with watching cars go by.

About five minutes passed, and Link said nothing. His eyes were glued to the sky, which was turning redder and redder by the second. Lydia almost missed it, but she managed to catch sight of a tiny smile on Link's face.

"The sunset is the same here," he said. "Our worlds... may not be as different one would think at first glance. _We_... may not be as different as one would think at first glance."

Lydia smiled.

"But," he continued, his voice starting to sound sad, "Hyrule hasn't seen a sunset like this in a long time."

Images of the broken and destroyed Hyrule Field entered Lydia's mind again. She had been trying to push those images out all week, but now they were flowing back in unchecked.

Another minute of silence passed, until Link spoke suddenly.

"I don't regret it, you know."

Lydia looked at him, and saw him touch his chest as he smiled at her, tracing the line of the scar he now beared there.

"This," he said. "I don't regret it." He turned back to face the sunset again, and sucked in a breath, as if psyching himself up for something. "Four years ago... Wow, I can't believe it's only been four years. It really felt so much longer to me."

The girl turned toward him, wanting to say something to console him, but at the same time, not wanting to interrupt.

"I didn't come to," he continued, "until some time after Ganondorf destroyed the Ocarina of Time and sent you two back home. Of course, at the time, I didn't know he had done that. He told me that you two had just left on your own. Said you had 'abandoned' me." He saw Lydia about to protest out of the corner of his eye and quickly added, "But I knew that wasn't the truth - I knew he was just trying to get a rise out of me. Trying to make me feel worse about the situation. It didn't take me long to figure out what he had actually done. ...Just before he put me to sleep with his magic."

"So you were asleep the whole time?" Lydia asked hopefully.

Link swallowed hard. "No."

The girl's heart dropped.

"I was _most_ of time, but not the whole time. Every now and then, Ganondorf would wake me up..." His mouth curled into a bitter sneer. His fists clenched and unclenched, over and over. "...And he would spend hours telling me in detail... the damage he was doing to Hyrule. Every time he destroyed another area... every time another race went into hiding... He'd wake me up, tell me all about it, and then put me to sleep again."

Lydia's hands shot up to her mouth in shock. Tears welled up in her eyes. What a horrible thing to go through. It was no wonder he had been so hesitant to talk about it.

"When we go back there tomorrow," he continued, "the state of Hyrule won't be a shock to me. I already have a picture in my mind of how bad it is. He was keeping me alive... just to make me suffer more."

Link pounded the railing once.

"Not only was I defeated, he wanted to make sure I knew what the result was, in grueling detail. He couldn't let me die and just be _done_ with it! It's not like I can do anything for Hyrule! It wouldn't have mattered if I _had_ died!"

Suddenly, Lydia's hands seized his shoulders unusually strongly. She turned him to face her, reared her arm back, and with a shout of rage, slapped him right across the face as hard as she could. Link recoiled and fell back against the railing, his hair falling down to hide his eyes.

His left hand slowly rose and he held his face where she had hit him. He looked up at her, and was surprised to see that she didn't look angry - she looked incredibly sad. He knew that what he had said was wrong the instant after he had said it, but the dam was already ruptured... the damage already done. Emotion came pouring out of the girl.

"So, so, things would have been better that way? It wouldn't have m-mattered?" she stammered forcefully. "What Ganondorf put you through saddens me to no end, and only makes me feel worse about taking a whole four years to figure out how to get back to Hyrule. But you're not the only one that has suffered!"

Link straightened up again, still holding his face... his stomach twisting into a knot as he realized his mistake.

"I can never repay the gift you gave me by protecting me during that battle," she went on, "...sacrificing yourself so that _I_ could live, but at the same time, I was wounded anyway. Emotionally. I didn't eat. I didn't sleep. I didn't care what happened to me! With you dead, my life was _over_ , as far as I was concerned!" She was shouting now, despite her best efforts not to.

Link cut in, barely above a whisper.. "All this time... you thought..."

She was crying now. "Yeah, that's right, Ganondorf didn't _tell_ me that you were still alive before sending us back here. He even went as far as to tell me about how it was all _my_ fault! And I believed him! All these years, I've had to live with the fact that not only was the person I loved dearest in the world _dead_ , but it was _my_ fault! Think about _that_ before you say that it wouldn't have mattered!"

She swallowed hard, trying to compose herself, and continued to speak, in a more controlled voice. "My going back to Hyrule last week wasn't supposed to be a rescue mission. My only purpose was to finish what you started. I thought that it was the least I could do for you. Instead, I found you. Alive. ...My whole world changed in that instant. My life had meaning again. My heart was full again." She wiped her eyes, steadied her voice further, and looked at Link with a kind of maturity and sense of wisdom in her face that he had never seen before.

"Whether you live or die _does_ matter. Not only for the people of Hyrule that are still counting on you and are waiting for you... but to the people that love you. Me.. the kid... even Zelda, wherever she is." Her voice buckled again. "It matters to _us_."

Link let go of his sore face, moved forward, and pulled her into an embrace. "I know," he said. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it."

Lydia sighed. "...I know you didn't. I just wanted to... make sure you understood... what you mean to us... to _me_. We need you."

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry that it was so hard for you. I'm sorry that you suffered... and at the same time, I'm touched that you care about me that much."

"I've just... missed you so terribly..."

Neither of the two said anything nor moved for several minutes. They simply stood there in each others' arms as the sun continued to dip lower into the sky... a pleasant wind blowing through their hair.

Finally, Lydia pushed away with a big smile on her face. "So, we're at an agreement, then, sir?" she asked, trying to sound authoritative as she attempted to lighten the mood again.

The Hylian smiled. "Yes, I think so."

"So we're going to stay alive, by any means necessary?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And, what are we going to do now?"

"We're going to go back to Hyrule, find Ganondorf, tear him apart, and set things right again."

"And then?"

"And then we'll spend our days peacefully, bickering and stealing food from each other, and giving your brother a hard time in general. Oh, and then you're going to teach _me_ how to drive."

Lydia scoffed. "You want to drive the _car_? You almost wet yourself the first time you were in it!"

"I'm feeling daring."

The girl placed a hand on Link's shoulder. "But... before all of _that_...?"

Link smiled. "Pizza."

She patted him on the chest triumphantly. "Good boy. I've taught you well." She smiled, and her eyes danced with the emotion she still felt. "We'll make sure that Hyrule gets to see another sunset like this. Let's promise that to each other, all right?"

"...All right."

"Heh. Looks like we're officially back in business," Lydia replied with a characteristic grin. She glanced down into the parking lot, and her eyes widened. "Pizza!" she yelled as she made a bolt for the door, almost smacking right into it in her haste. Yanking the glass door open, she disappeared into the apartment.

Leaning over the balcony railing slightly, Link saw a rusty white car with a gaudy glowing sign on its roof attempting to work its way into a space just outside. Resting his arms on the railing again, he watched the sunset for a few minutes more, much more relaxed than he had before. It felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Maybe they really did have a chance.

If only they could find a sword. The whole thing rested on finding a sword to use until they recovered the Master Sword, where ever it was. ...What could have happened to it? Ganondorf probably would indeed want it as far away from himself as possible... unless that's what he _wanted_ them to think. Perhaps it would be wise to look for it first where they didn't expect it to be.

And then.. of course... there was always the other question... Did the Master Sword's disappearance even have anything to do with Ganondorf at all...?

Link's thoughts were broken by Lydia's voice, as the white car pulled away and disappeared around the corner. He leaned over the side and saw her down on the sidewalk, holding a large box.

"Hey," she called up to him, "can you buzz me back in? I left my keys!"

The Hylian smirked evilly. "And that's my fault... why?"

"C'mon, just let me back in."

"But I feel like giving you a hard time about it instead. Y'know. Watch you squirm."

"Long Ears, if I weren't afraid of people seeing me, I'd fly up there and kick you right in the nose! Now open this door or I'm gonna eat this whole pizza by myself! None for you!"

Link merely rested his chin in one of his hands, and looked amused.

Lydia stamped her foot. "Door! Now!" she yelled up again, obviously failing in her attempts to not smile or laugh.

"Okay, okay. Relax."

He disappeared into the apartment as Lydia continued her stream of playful cursing and threatening down below.

* * *

The buzzer rang at about ten o'clock the following morning. Knowing who it was, Link pushed the button that he had learned opened the door downstairs. A couple of minutes later, there was a knock at the apartment door, and Link opened it to find Gordon standing there, as expected. He was carrying a brown paper bag with him, which he promptly pushed into Link's arms.

"Here you go," he said. "Mom hopes it fits you okay."

"Thanks," Link replied with a smile, glancing down into the bag, which was surprisingly heavy. Neatly folded in the bottom, he could see a mass of thick, dark green cloth. Before he could look more closely, Gordon asked, "Where's Lydia?"

Link set the bag down on the table, and absent-mindedly smoothed wrinkles out of the clothes he wore. "I think she's still sleeping."

"Laaaaazy."

"I'll get her up." With that, Link headed toward the back bedroom, but not before taking a quick detour through the kitchen.

Gordon wandered over to the window and opened the shades, letting in the late-morning sunlight. As he watched the particles of dust dance around in the sunbeams, he was suddenly startled by a loud clanging noise, repeated a few times, which were followed by his sister's screams. Seconds later, Link came running into the living room again, laughing to himself, and shoved a pan and wooden spoon under the couch. The Hylian sat himself on the couch, and tried to look innocent. Lydia wasn't long to follow. She skidded to a stop at the entrance of the room, with one hand planted on the wall. She was wearing a long night shirt with a cartoon character on it that hung almost to her knees, and her hair was full of tangles. Though she wasn't wearing her glasses, she had no trouble finding the person she had chased out here, whom she immediately smacked in the head. Link pretended to recoil from the strike, and stretched out across the couch cushions, playing dead.

"I'll...go..get..dressed..." Lydia muttered through her teeth, and went back to the bedroom.

Link sat up again, obviously still amused with himself.

"Nice," Gordon said with a chuckle.

"I thought so."

Lydia's voice sailed down the hallway. "Hey, kid?"

"Yeah?" Gordon answered.

"I got a ton of work done last night on the spell - think you can take a look at my notes? I just think we're _really_ close now."

"Okay." With that, he went down the hallway and ducked into the spare room.

Left to himself, Link took the opportunity to wander back over to where he had set down the paper bag with his new clothes in it. He picked the bag up, once again surprised by its weight, and brought it back to the couch, emptying the contents on the cushion next to him. All he needed was a new tunic - his white underclothes, gauntlets, boots, and the rest of his equipment was still usable. Sure enough, only the dark green overtunic and matching hat tumbled out of the bag. So why was the bag so heavy?

The answer revealed itself the minute he touched the clothes. The inside of them was lined with small metal rings. Link could hardly believe it. He quickly seized the tunic with both hands and checked it again, as if thinking that his hands had lied to him the first time. Sure enough, the inside of his new clothes was laced with lightweight chainmail, which was slightly visable at the neckline, sleeves, and bottom hem of the green fabric. A childlike smile crawled over Link's face in excitement. Chainmail was rare in Hyrule, as it was quite expensive, since some thought it had magic qualities - the way it was heavy when you held it, but surprisingly light when actually worn.

Upon closer examination, he noticed that the chainmail wasn't actually attached to the new tunic - it was its own seperate shirt, meant to be worn seperately underneath. Added protection in battle, but if he ever needed to do some serious sneaking around, he also had the option to _not_ wear it. He shook the shirt a bit, and the chainmail appeared to be fairly lightweight as chainmail went, and made a surpringly small amount of noise. He could probably even still do some sneaking around while wearing it.

Lydia came into the room then, wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. She was pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose as she approached Link. "What are you so giddy about?" she asked.

All maturity forgotten, Link jumped up and pushed the new tunic into Lydia's hands. "Look, look, look!"

"...Oh, wow. No wonder this took a week. She had a chainmail shirt made for you!" She gave the clothes back to Link and said, "Today's the day, so gather your stuff up and get ready."

Not about to complain about trying on the chainmail shirt, Link hurried into the back bedroom, where all of his equipment was stored in the closet.

Gordon came out of the spare room just then, holding a stack of uneven papers. He had a wide smile on his face. "Way to go!" he told his sister. He fumbled through the stack until he found the sheet he was looking for, and held it up excitedly, allowing the rest of the stack to flutter to and all over the floor. "THIS was exactly the piece of information I needed!"

"So you've got it figured out?"

"Yep! I should be able to get us back from Hyrule once we go there. All I have to do now is recopy everything into an order that'll make it easier for _you_ to learn how to do it. But _first..._ "

Lydia raised an eyebrow. "First?"

Her brother crossed the room with a very smug look on his face, and made himself comfortable in the cushy TV chair. "I know I said I was gonna rest last night... but I spent the evening and half the night working."

"Working on what?"

The boy smirked again. "We'll wait for Link to finish getting ready."

And so they waited. Lydia sat on the couch and fidgited the entire time, glancing at her brother now and then, who was humming to himself.

After about ten minutes, Link emerged from the bedroom and met the other two in the living room. He looked better than he had looked in a long time. His hair was re-braided and tucked into his hat, like he always used to wear it. His new tunic appeared to fit perfectly, with little bits of the light chainmail showing from a few places. Though without a sword, his sheath was strapped to the usual place, and his shield was also in its usual place. As he entered the room, he was adjusting his old gauntlets to a more comfortable position on his arms. Even though he _was_ wearing chainmail, it was surprising how quiet his movements still were.

"Wow, look at you." Lydia said with a smile.

Link reached up, shifted the hat a bit, and brushed his bangs out of his eyes. "It looks okay, then?"

"All you need to complete the look is a sword."

"Speaking of which..." Gordon said suddenly.

Lydia motioned for Link to sit down on the couch next to her. "The kid's just dying to tell us something."

"Oh?" Link asked. "Did you figure out how to work that spell in reverse?"

"Yeah, but that's beside the point," the boy answered. He leaned forward in his seat, and the other two leaned forward slightly in response.

Gordon folded his hands in his lap. "I know I wasn't planning to comb Hyrule's time stream until today. Y'know.. looking for a new sword to use until we find the Master Sword. But... I was sitting around last night, and I ended up working on it until almost five this morning."

Lydia sighed. "You were supposed to be _resting_... We can't have you falling asleep in the middle of the day."

"I wouldn't worry about it. I have to stay here again so that I make sure you two go to the right place."

"What do you mean?" Link asked.

Gordon smiled triumphantly. "Change of plans. I've found a sword."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

" _What?!_ Already?!" Lydia was leaning forward so far that it was a wonder she was managing to stay on the couch.

Link was no different. "I thought you told us a search would take a couple of days, at least!"

The sorcerer pushed up his glasses authoritatively, a smug look on his face. "It didn't take long for this sword to reveal itself," he said. "It was almost like the thing stepped out from behind a wall and waved at me. Pinning down its location in the timeline was the more tricky part. But I've definitely found a sword with magical qualities, a ways in Hyrule's future."

"The future? And... it's not the Master Sword, right?"

"No, it's definitely a different sword. It gives off a different energy." His eyebrows furrowed a little bit in a look of slight confusion. "A very strange energy, in fact."

Lydia spoke up suddenly. "Strange? How do you mean?"

"I dunno," Gordon replied, his hand up to his mouth in thought. "Magic is in it, similar to that of the Master Sword, of course... but..." He raises his arms and waved his hands indifferently. "Ah, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. Just me talking too much."

His sister nodded, but didn't look convinced. "O..kay, then."

"So, what happens now?" Link asked.

"Well," Gordon began, "now that we've figured out how to come _back_ from a world we go to, theoretically, we could _all_ go and get the sword... But I think it's safer if I stay here again. Time travelling without the Master Sword is risky business, and I want to make sure that you go to the right place, and come back to the right place. So I'll stay here again."

"As far as I'm concerned," Lydia muttered, "time travelling is risky even _with_ the Master Sword. I still don't feel all that comfortable with this idea. No-" She raised a hand to stop Gordon from speaking. "I _don't_ have a better idea, and until we find the Master Sword again, this is the best choice we have. I know, I know."

"If there was something else we could do that _didn't_ involve something as risky as playing with time itself, you know I'd take it. Our options are limited. Anyway, I am going to open the portal again, but this time I'll be sending you not only to Hyrule's niche of the universe, but also to its future. Just how _far_ into the future, in a measure of years, is still foggy to me, so I can't really tell you that. Just like with the generic dimensional jump, I can't leave the portal open very long. Holding open a slit in timespace for any extended length of time is a recipe for trouble."

Link stared blankly. Lydia turned to him and said, "Basically, if we open the portal and dawdle around more than ten or fifteen seconds, we risk damaging the universe we live in. This is why I'd prefer to _avoid_ this stuff."

"I guess I never really noticed because travelling with the Ocarina of Time and the Master Sword was always so quick," the Hylian replied.

The sorceress shrugged. "Well, I think those are quite a bit safer than our make-shift spell. Much less risk. Maybe in the future we'll be able to gloss over the spell a bit and lessen the risk down to Ocarina of Time level, like Maya and Riku were able to do... but for now this'll get us by, as long as we're careful. ANYWAY." She slapped her knees, signalling that she was finished with talking, and got to her feet. "Got all your stuff together?"

"Yeah," Link replied, standing as well, adjusting the sheath's strap on the way up. "Let's do this."

Gordon quickly wormed his way around them and into the open hallway by the door. "Okay, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to open the portal right here," he said, pointing to a spot on the carpet at his feet. "As soon as it's fully open, you two run through, so that I can hurry and close it again. I _think_... since this is our first try with this, you two might want to hold hands or something to avoid getting separated."

Lydia giggled. Link smiled sheepishly.

"Yeah, didn't think you'd mind," the sorcerer said with a smirk. "It's probably not even necessary, because I think I have this pretty much figured out - I just don't want to take any chances. Anyway. Run thorough the portal, don't get separated on the way.. and you'll end up at a specific point in Hyrule's future, where this sword is. I get the feeling from the energies that it's giving off that it's currently in a state of rest. Basically, not being weilded by anybody. So, it should be pretty easy for you to find and... borrow. Once we find the Master Sword, we'll have to go back to that place again and replace it."

"And nobody will be the wiser," his sister stated. "It almost sounds too easy. Knowing _our_ luck so far, I'll just be waiting for the catch. And there _will_ be a catch, because there always is one."

"Don't think like that," Link warned her.

She shrugged indifferently. "Just a general observation."

Gordon moved away from the spot where he would open the doorway through time, and positioned himself several feet away, back where the other two were standing. "As soon as you get the sword, call for me, and I'll re-open the door back here. That way, we can regroup and formulate a strategy for when we go back to the Hyrule we're out to fix."

"So, basically, grab the sword and come _right_ back here?"

"It's fine," Link declared in a low voice. "It's not like Hyrule will get any more messed up than it already is between now and then."

Taking the silence that fell over the room as the cue, Gordon cleared his throat and said, "Okay, stand back. Lydia, you've done this once before, so you'll know when to make your move."

"We're ready." She looked at Link. "Right?"

He smiled back at her. "I was ready even before _you_ were ready."

"All right then," Gordon said, positioning his hands out in front of him. "We can't waste any more time here."

The boy closed his eyes and concentrated hard. Link couldn't tell what he was doing, but Lydia knew, having studied the spell herself. He was reaching into timespace with his mind, trying to find his destination. Once he located it, he could focus all of his energy toward that spot and create a dimensional bridge for them to cross. The girl sucked in a breath, and exhaled slowly. This was the moment of truth. Gordon had never actually performed this before; though, since he had pulled off the basic dimensional crossover, he should be able to work out the passage over time as well. He really _was_ better than Lydia at this sort of thing. He just paid much better attention to details than she usually did. He was always the type that would look for a way around a locked door, while she would just sooner blast through it. Gordon didn't mind actually taking the time to solve problems. Hopefully that would all pay off today.

After about thirty seconds of silent concentration, Gordon started to move his hands in a fashion that suggested he was trying to reach for something, and his arms weren't quite long enough. Lydia gave Link a little nod, signalling that this was all part of the process. Once they had done this a few times, it wouldn't take so long to set up. It probably normally wouldn't take this long at all, but the kid _had_ said he was going to pay extra close attention to detail this time.

Finally, Gordon threw his arms out to his side, then brought his right arm back in front of him and swung it around in a repeated arc. As a wind started to blow through the apartment, sending flying anything that wasn't heavy or otherwise weighed down, a black dot appeared directly across the room from the boy, above the point on the floor he had pointed out earlier. The dot quickly started to expand into a swirling vortex.

Lydia grabbed hold of Link's hand then. "Almost. Get ready."

The Hylian swallowed hard and shifted on his feet. He couldn't help but be a little nervous. The last time he had gone through one of these things, he had been unconscious. He wasn't too excited about going through it while awake to actually experience it. Something told him it would be a bumpier ride than travelling with the Ocarina of Time. He would have much rather he kept his feet on the ground. As he watched that vortex grow, it seemed to tell him that, even though he was nervous about it, jumping through it when Lydia gave the signal was the only way he could help Hyrule now.

When the black, swirling vortex was about the size of a grown person, Lydia yanked on Link's arm, muttering a harsh and commanding "Now!", and they ran toward it. Link closed his eyes as he leapt across the threshold. He was hit by a rush of cold wind, and felt the sensation of flying. He hadn't opened his eyes yet, and therefore couldn't _see_ the portal closing behind them, but he could almost _feel_ it closing. The closing portal mocked him in his own mind, suggesting that he'd never see daylight again. His ears were popping from the pressure of the air rushing around them. He held his companion's hand tightly.

Finally, he worked up the courage to open his eyes.

They were flying through a dimly lit tunnel, with all kinds of colors swirling around them. Link could hear voices, but none intelligible, as they passed through Hyrule's time stream. Though he couldn't catch actual words as they passed by the different times, he could make out all different kinds of voices. Happy, sad, fearful.. and even some that sounded like they were in the midst of battle. Just how far forward were they going?

"Wow!" Lydia suddenly exclaimed. " _This_ is new! The basic dimensional cross was pretty instantaneous! How cool! It feels like I'm flying warp-speed through a history book!"

A light suddenly appeared at the end of the tunnel. It shone brightly, beckoning them close.

"I think that's our destination," the girl said. "Here we go!"

Though the walls of the tunnel passed quickly all around them, there was no actual sensation of moving forward. Even so, the light at the end expanded quickly, until he became so bright that Link was forced to close his eyes against it. There was another rush of wind, and suddenly he found himself on solid ground again, stumbling from the inertia of reentry.

Lydia, who had not managed to stay on her feet, quickly stood, brushed herself off, and gaped at their surroundings. It was a sunny day, and it looked like they were standing in the middle of some ancient ruins. The small stone walls and pillars that surrounded them looked like they were once part of a great castle or something. Or, perhaps they were in a courtyard. Maybe the few trees that stood around them and the green grass at their feet was not simply a matter of overgrowth over the passage of many years of this place's lack of use.

The most prominent structure was directly in front of them. It was a great wall, with an indentation about fifteen feet or so across, and about ten feet deep. On the wall of the indentation was a series of markings in the rock that looked like a shining sun. Below that, at ground level, was a small, curved door. This door had chains running across it, as well as the design of an eye in the middle. The eye was similar to the mark of the Sheikah, but it was also apparent that it was not the same mark, however similar. It was just different enough.

Just in front of this wall was a pedestal, surrounded by a circle of stepping stones. In the pedestal stood a fairly simple, yet strong-looking sword. It had a golden hilt, with a large jewel embedded at the end of the handle.

Lydia smiled and looked at Link. "The kid wasn't kidding when he said he's put us in close."

Link looked around them. Aside from the sword standing proudly in its pedestal, they seemed to be completely alone in this place. He could feel no other presenses, and no hints of dark energy. He looked at the girl and said, "So much for that 'catch', huh?"

"We're not back yet. I'll be proven right yet, just you wait and see."

Standing rooted on the spot, Link continued to stare at the sword for several silent seconds, until Lydia said, "Hey, y'know, I didn't mean for you to wait, literally. What's the hesitation?"

"I'm just not so sure about this all of a sudden."

She patted him on the back a couple of times. "I'm sure it'll be fine. Gordon wouldn't have us retrieving anything dangerous."

"I'm just saying. Magical swords aren't usually just put on display like this... It must be here for a reason."

"We won't need it long. We'll probably find the Master Sword in no time. With our magic, I'm sure we can locate it quickly enough. Besides, no matter how long we're using it back in our time, we could always come back to this time's right-after-we-leave moment. That way we won't run into ourselves and cause a time paradox - otherwise we could just go back to the very moment the sword was taken, and it would be like we never took it at all. But we can't do that, because there'd be two of each of us in one place, and the fabric of spacetime would _not_ like that all too much, and would probably collapse on itself or something. So we'll just make it so that we come back right after we leave, so the sword will only be out of its pedestal for a few minutes, tops."

Link stared silently, and finally said, "Do you even realize how insane you sound?"

"Time travelling _is_ insane, Long Ears. That's why I hate it. But it's okay - we can make this work."

"...Well, all right... As long as you're sure."

"I'm not, but, y'know... C'mon, just go get the sword. I'll wait here."

Swallowing a lump in his throat, Link walked forward to where the sword stood. When he was closer, he saw that its blade wasn't quite as long as the Master Sword's was, but it was wider at the base, so it still looked quite strong as swords go. He put a slightly shaky hand on the hilt and wrapped his fingers around the handle. Having become quite sensitive to these things, he felt a magical power from the sword, definitely. It rushed through him the minute he touched it, and though he quickly convinced himself that he imagined it, he thought he felt something inside his body react to this sword. There was no way of telling what it was - the feeling was gone as quickly as it had come. It was similar to the feeling of a Triforce piece reacting to an outside force, though far, far less unpleasant. Of course, he no longer had a Triforce piece... Having no explaination for the feeling, the Hylian just assumed it was nothing.

He glanced back at Lydia, who was standing where he had left her. She made eye contact with him and flashed him a toothy smile, as if silently saying, "Go for it!".

Link turned back toward the blade in front of him. _For Hyrule_ , he thought, and with one arm, he yanked the sword from its pedestal. It slid out surprisingly easily for being encased in stone. He held it above his head to get a good look at it. Just as he did so, the sword gave off an intensely bright light. Link grunted in surprise and closed his eyes against it.

Still standing about fifteen feet away from the pedestal, Lydia also had to turn away from the light. What was happening?! Was the sword rejecting Link?!

Just as she was about to run forward to try to help, she felt something rush past her ear - the surprise of it made her stop in her tracks. Or, she _thought_ she had felt something rush past her. It was there and gone so quickly... but it had a strange, dark feel to it... It was as if it had flown from the very light the sword was giving off. ...Maybe she was just imagining it.

The dimming of the sword's light distracted her from the mystery thing that had flown past her. She looked back toward the pedestal, and could finally make out Link's figure. He was still standing, thankfully, directly in front of her.

No, wait... he was a little off to the left.. Or, no... To the right...

When the light faded completely, Lydia's jaw lost all muscle function and her mouth hung open, gaping at the sight before her. Certain she was seeing things, she blinked a few times. But what she saw was still there. It was real.

"Holy..sh..." she managed to whisper to herself.

Link had multiplied. There was not one, but _four_ of him now, and each of them was holding an exact copy of the same sword in his left hand. The only obvious difference between them was the color of the clothing they wore. One was still dressed in the same green he had arrived here in. But the other three were dressed in red, blue, and a shade of light violet.

And when the four Links became aware of each other, the situation threatened to turn violent after the required few moments of shocked stares.

The green Link jumped away from the rest of the group and held the sword in front of him defensively. "Imposters!" he yelled.

Balling his right hand into a threatening fist, the Link dressed in red shouted right back. "Who're you calling an imposter?! _You're_ the imposter here! I outta beat you right into the ground for suggesting that _I'm_ the fake!"

The Link dressed in blue stood rooted to the spot, and surprisingly, looked ready to cry out of distress. "What's going on?" he asked no one in particular, his voice barely audible.

"How strange..." the violet Link said to himself. He was the only calm one, even though his stance _did_ show some measure of caution.

Again yelling at the red Link, seemingly ignoring the other two, the green Link yelled, "I've seen this before! You're all just shadows of _me_ , created by some magic trick!"

Red Link again shot right back. "Like hell! _You're_ the shadow of _me_! I already said that!" He raised his sword. "Now get ready to die, shadow!"

The green Link suddenly lowered his sword and held his right hand out in front of him. "Wait, wait, wait," he said. He looked at the red Link, regarding him carefully. "All right, then..." He suddenly swung his arm around to point at the girl that stood dumbfounded just a little ways away. "What's that girl's name?"

"Why? Shouldn't you know that?"

"I'm seeing if _you_ know! Just answer the question!"

Scoffing, as if asked what two plus two was, he immediately replied, "That's Lydia. So? What're you getting at?"

Suddenly moving away from the red Link, the Link in green moved over to where the blue Link still stood. "Who'd we leave behind?" he asked him forcefully.

Blue Link cringed away from his harsh voice as if struck. "Gordon, of course...," he answered meekly. "He wanted to make sure we got to the right place..."

His arms falling to his sides in defeat, the green Link breathed, "What the hell is this?"

"Wait, I see what's going on," the Link in violet suddenly said, looking at the sword he held in his hand. "None of us are imposters or shadows. We're all the real thing. It's this sword."

Breaking into the group at a run in her excitement, Lydia bounced up to the green Link's side to get a close look at the sword he held. "I think you're right! It's got to be this sword! Wow! This is so cool!"

" _How_ is this 'cool', exactly?" the red Link demanded. "There's only supposed to be _one_ of me."

"Don't you see?" she answered, excitement still in her voice, like a kid in a candy store. "This sword's magic! It splits the weilder's personality!"

"Personality?" the blue Link asked, his voice finally regaining some confidence now that he wasn't so distressed by the situation.

"Yeah, just look. The Link in the original green, from what I can tell so far, is the hero side. I mean, the way you yelled 'Imposters!' like that was so paladin-esque. Very cool."

She moved on. "And you, the red Link... You're _obviously_ the aggresive part of the personality."

"Hmph," was his reply.

"And the blue Link... hmm... I think you're Link's innocence. The sweet, sensitive side of the personality."

The red Link was quick to comment. "More like the wuss of the group."

"Man, just be quiet," the green Link growled.

Ignoring them, Lydia moved on again. "And _you_..." she said to the Link in violet... "You seem to be Link's logic. The brains of the outfit, in other words."

"That was my guess, too," the violet Link replied. "But I didn't want to be the one to say it. Thought it would sound conceited."

The green Link looked at Lydia with some worry in his eyes. "So, I guess this was the catch, huh?"

"Yeah, I suppose so. One of these days you'll just learn to take my word for things."

"...What now?"

"There's not a lot we can do. We _need_ this sword. And from the way I see it, _four_ of you rather than just one will be a steep advantage. ...As long as the four of you can learn to cooperate."

Red Link rolled his eyes a bit.

The girl continued, unfazed by the red Link's obvious unwillingness to be a team player. "One thing is for certain. There is no way I can call all of you "Link". That's a sure-fire way to confuse ourselves. So, um... I think the obvious solution is to call you all by your tunic colors, until we can replace the sword in the pedestal, which I _assume_ will combine you all into one Link again. So..." She began to name them off. "Green, Red, Blue, and..." She stopped at the violet Link, and hesitated. "And... Violet?"

Red was reduced to belly-laughs, and he pointed mockingly at the violet Link. "Violet?! What a girly name! Poor bastard!" He clutched at his sides and continued to guffaw.

The violet Link glared at Red, but said nothing.

"Red, that's not very nice," Blue said uncertainly.

Green was staring at Red as well, obviously finding his behavior unbelievable. He looked at Lydia. " _This_ is a part of me?!"

Lydia smiled back at him with no small amount of pity. She looked back at the violet Link and said, "Well, then, we'll call you Vio, for short. That's quite a bit more masculine, don't you think?"

"I honestly don't care _what_ you call me," Vio declared calmly, "even if Red does."

Red, still laughing, waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, come on, lighten up. I'm just messing with ya."

Green was covering his eyes with his hand. "Unbelievable."

"So, um..," Blue began, once again sounding confident, but still sounded like he was unsure of whether or not he had the right to speak. He was obviously still a little rattled by this whole thing. "Do we head back now, like your brother said?"

"Going back to regroup really _does_ sound like a good idea right now," Green answered.

"Yes, I agree," Vio added. "Even if we were expecting a 'catch', it's not like we were expecting _this_ to happen. We may need to rethink our strategy."

Immediately, the thing that she thought she felt pass by her while the sword was splitting Link into four people reentered Lydia's mind. She glanced around the ruins they were in, but saw nothing.

"It may be best to find the Master Sword as quickly as we can," she said quietly.

"What to you mean?" Vio asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I thought I felt something... back there... But, y'know, I'm pretty sure I imagined it."

Only being met with a deep stare from Vio, Lydia said again, "Seriously. I'm sure it was nothing."

Sounding unconvinced, Vio replied, "All right, then..."

Quickly clearing her throat, as if to try to direct attention away from herself, Lydia called her brother's name loudly into the air above them.

"He can hear you?" Green asked, obviously perplexed.

"He can when I want him to. That's how I got the two of us back from Hyrule after I found you. Now, the portal will reopen any second. With so many of us here now, it wouldn't be too hard to get separated, which would be really bad. The five of us had better stay close."

Not hesitating at all, Blue bounded over to Lydia's side and grabbed her left hand, smiling at her playfully. She giggled, then looked at the other three. "You guys, too. C'mon."

Vio shrugged and grabbed hold of Blue's free hand. Green followed suit and positioned himself at Vio's other side. Red, however, simply stood there, staring at Green's hand, which was being held out to him.

"Ugh," he grumbled.

"Oh, don't be such a _baby_ ," Green growled as he reached over and grabbed Red's hand with no small amount of force.

A wind suddenly rushed through the courtyard, sending loose dust sailing through the air, and the familiar black swirling portal appeared before them. It was small at first and then expanded, just like before. As soon as it was the size of a person, Lydia smirked and shook her head.

"The kid is _not_ going to believe this."

She yanked on Blue's hand, and the train of time travellers disappeared through the black portal, one by one. Once all of them had gone, the portal shrunk and disappeared. The wind died down, and the courtyard was once again as it had been before, with the exception of the missing sword. One other thing was different, even though no one was there to notice it now. The air in the area was lighter, somehow. As if something had left with them that was weighing down the atmosphere in this place.

Though she was no longer back in the courtyard to notice the change in the surrounding air, Lydia did not miss the cause of said change. They had been sailing through the same tunnel as before, in the reverse direction this time, when it happened. When they were about halfway back to their own time, Red's frantic shout suddenly sailed up the ranks.

"Heads up!" he yelled.

Almost acting in unison, the four Links all twisted themselves to the side, and thereby moving the sorceress aside, too, as something flew past them faster than their eyes could follow. It whizzed past them, and disappeared far ahead in the tunnel.

A pang of panic hit Lydia just then. That thing. It was the same thing that she had felt go past her when Link had taken the sword from its resting place. She felt the same darkness as it passed her that second time.

"What the _hell_ was that?!" Red shouted up to her.

Only taking her eyes off of their destination long enough to look back at Vio, she quietly said, "I guess I didn't imagine it."

Vio only frowned, obviously thinking hard.

"...I... I don't like this...!" Blue said nervously. "What if it's some kind of monster?"

Green tried to reassure him. "Don't worry. If it _was_ a monster... Who says we'll even see it again?"

Blue looked back at him, as if he were crazy. "You and I _both_ know that that's never how it works out!" He looked close to tears again.

"A little optimism never hurt anybody, Blue," Vio cut in, "but it won't hurt for us to be cautious either. I'll bet this sword has something to do with it, though."

The light at the end appeared just then.

"We'll talk about this later," Lydia said. "Brace yourselves - we're almost there!"

Expanding around them, the light signaled the end of their time-travelling journey, and the beginning of something else entirely...

* * *

 _Still_ unable to believe his eyes, Gordon continued to stare. He was seated on one side of the dining room table, and seated all across the other side was not one, but _four_ Links, all dressed in different colors. No one said anything. The Link in the usual green clothes was sitting with his arms resting on the table, waiting patiently for the glasses of water that Lydia was off in the kitchen getting for the four of them. The Link dressed in red looked far less patient, irately tapping his fingers on the wood. The blue Link, who seemed to have the general mindset of an innocent child, was doodling on a piece of paper and humming to himself. With his nose in one of Lydia's college textbooks, the fourth Link, who seemed to be the silent type, was mostly keeping to himself.

"So...," Gordon finally said, "this happened when you took the sword?"

His sister reappeared just then, somehow managing to carry four glasses of water in her arms without spilling anything, and carefully lowered the load onto the table. "This is the effect of the sword's magic," she said as she passed a glass to each Link. "From what I can tell, none of them are the "true" Link, but simply four separate parts of him. _Together_ , they make up the original, and will probably have to do a lot of teamwork to get anything done." The girl smiled. "Right out of a movie, practically."

"Seperate parts of Link's personality, you mean? So, who's who?"

Lydia started with Green and worked her way down, pointing at each Link in turn. "He's the heroic one. He's the aggressive one. He's Link's innocence... and the last one is Link's logical side. From what I've been able to tell so far, anyway."

"Fascinating," her brother mused with a huge smile across his face.

"Isn't it?"

The first Link to speak up since they had sat down at this table, Red growled, "I'm glad you find us so amusing."

Green nudged him hard. "Oh, lighten up. Can you blame them? They're sorcerers. This is what they do."

"Whatever."

Gordon tapped his chin in thought. "Will this be reversed when the sword is replaced?"

Vio finally looked up from the book. "We assume so."

"Hmm... Well, since we _really_ need this sword, I guess we'll just have to bear with it until then."

" _I_ think it's great," Lydia said. "And you thought we were a powerful group with just _one_ Link? Ho- _ho_ , Ganondorf has his work cut out for him now."

"You sound excited," Blue observed, looking up from his drawings.

The girl smiled at him. "You can't tell me that you're not at least a _little_ excited about this. C'mon." She looked over at Red. "Even _you_ can't deny that this will be an advantage."

Red shrugged. "We'll see. Fact is, I don't _need_ any of these three to fight."

"We're four parts of the same whole," Green told him in a lecturing tone. "Lyd was right - teamwork will be essential."

"Tch."

Gordon looked from one Link to the other, still a little weirded out by four people having the same face. "So... um..."

Realizing what Gordon was fishing for, Lydia suddenly said, "Oh, I've been calling them by the color of their clothes."

"Oh, I see. So..." The sorcerer looked down the line as Red started taking long swallows from his glass. "Green, Red, Blue, and..." He stopped at Vio, obviously having an argument with himself. "...Purple?"

Loudly choking, Red sent the water he _had_ been drinking all over the table, and then dissolved into a fit of uncontrolled laughter which was only broken by occasional coughing.

Green sighed and stood up. "I'll go get a rag," he mumbled as he disappeared into the kitchen.

Vio looked unamused as Red continued to laugh. Blue shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he continued to draw, obviously pretending not to notice what was going on.

"Er..." Lydia leaned down to her brother's ear. "We call him Vio. Short for Violet. It's more masculine that way."

"I see..." He looked at Vio, and with no small amount of embarrassment in his face, said, "Sorry about that..."

"No apology needed," Vio replied, shrugging indifferently. "As I already told Lydia, no matter how immaturely Red chooses to express himself, I really don't care what you call me." With that, he went back to his book.

Green reappeared in the room just then, still frowning, and threw the rag at Red's face as hard as he could. Without even a break in his laughing, Red's hand shot up in front of his face and caught the rag before it hit him, demonstrating the acute awareness that Link had always possessed. Downgrading to loud chucking, Red started to wipe up his mess, making every possible effort to not make eye contact with Vio.

"You are truly unbelievable," Green said as he took his seat again.

Finally regaining control of himself, a wide, crooked smile crossed Red's face. "Sorry, I just can't help it. It's too funny! I'm glad I'm not the one stuck with that color."

Vio again looked up from the book he was reading, and said to Lydia, "You know, I never knew that the sun was simply a really close star. I don't think Hyrule's scientists have made that connection yet. But, I suppose it makes sense." His eyes lowered back to the pages.

The sorceress smiled. That comment had been so random that it was obvious Vio was trying to get a rise out of Red by completely ignoring him.

Just then, Blue grinned and proudly displayed his completed drawing to the two sorcerers. Lydia immediately laughed. It was a picture of him with a triumphant look on his face as he violently thrusted the Master Sword thorugh the torso a crudely-drawn Ganondorf, who had little X's in place of his eyes.

"Wow," Gordon said with a smile, "that's... really something."

"What do you mean?" Blue asked, tilting his head slightly.

"It just seems a little violent. Coming from someone like you, I mean."

"You think so...?" Blue smiled brightly. "It makes _me_ happy!"

The sorcerer laughed. "I see. Yeah, I guess so."

Lydia smiled at Blue. "Just because he's the sweet one of the group doesn't mean that he doesn't have the original Link's strong desire to beat Ganondorf. Am I right?"

Blue's smile widened.

"Speaking of Ganondorf," Green said, "what happens now?"

"Hmm," hummed Gordon. "Well, I guess nothing's stopping us from going back to Hyrule and seeing how things are there. We won't _really_ know what to do until we know just what's going on."

"Also..." Lydia said as she pulled up a chair... "There's the matter of that thing in the tunnel."

All four Links looked at her, including Vio, who had closed the book finally and set it on the table.

Gordon had already been told about this. His sister had felt the presense of something dark, possibly evil, when Link had drawn this new sword from its resting place. And the five of them had apparently encountered it a second time as it passed by them in the time warp back here. But it obviously wasn't here in the apartment with them - Gordon had only seen his sister emerge from the portal, followed by the four Links. Nothing else. So they didn't even know where this thing, whatever it was, had ended up.

"There's a good chance it's now in present-day Hyrule," Vio suggested, "since that was Hyrule's timeline we were flying through."

"Yeah," the girl replied, keeping her eyes lowered. "I sure didn't feel it come through to _this_ dimension."

"And you said it definitely felt evil?"

Her eyebrows curled in thought, and she said, "Dark, yes... And evil, _possibly_... I'm not jumping to that conclusion just yet."

"Why not?" Green asked.

"I'm not sure, but... Yeah, it was a whole lot of darkness, but I think I also felt a little tinge of light, too."

"Everything has a light and a dark side," Red said as he absently examined one of his fingernails. "Sometimes one side is stronger than the other, so much so that the other side is completely overshadowed. Ganondorf, for example. Hard to think of, but however miniscule, he _has_ a light side in there somewhere."

Blue's eyes widened. "So, are you saying that this thing... is like Ganondorf?!"

"I didn't say that."

"Yeah, you did! Just not directly." He looked wearily at the picture he had drawn.

Lydia waved her hands. "All right, all right. Don't panic. We just have to be _aware_ of this so that we aren't caught off guard. It may turn out to not be a big deal at all."

She was met with quiet stares from all four pairs of eyes.

"Okay, okay, you're right. There may be something to this. So let's just be careful."

Gordon looked at his watch. "Geez, it's this late already?"

"Time flies when you're having fun!" Blue declared cheerfully.

Red rolled his eyes. Green nudged him angrily.

Vio stretched his arms over his head. "It may be wise to stay here another night before setting off."

"Right," Green agreed with a nod. He looked from face to face, making eye contact with each of his comrades. "We leave first thing in the morning. ...This is it."

The room fell silent for several seconds while everyone mulled over everything that had happened. So many unanswered questions, so many uncertainties... where would they even start?

Red suddenly spoke up. "I get the couch."

The resulting fight ended with overturned chairs and a very angry sorceress, screaming something about a lease.

* * *

A chilly wind howled across the ruined landscape of Hyrule Field, picking up dust and sending it several feet with every gust. The sky was dark, as always, making shadows even larger and more threatening than they would be otherwise. In the midst of the ruined land, one would barely notice the small crater that was now carved into a part of the western end of the field.

From the center of the crater, a curled up figure stirred and slowly unrolled itself, grunting in pain as it did so. A man very slowly and shakily stood up. Attempted to stand, rather. It took him several tries to actually stay on his feet for any length of time. Though covered with dirt, his features were unmistakable. He had long Hylian-like ears and very, very pale skin, and looked to be between twenty and twenty-five years old. He had striking red eyes, and his long hair was such a brilliant shade of silver that if light were to hit it, it would take on a violet tint. He was dressed in a dark violet tunic and a long cloak of the same color, with a matching hat.

The fists of his slim hands clenched as he worked on keeping his balance. He wasn't quite sure where he was, but wasn't going to find out by sitting in the dirt any longer. Weak and fighting to stay conscious, the disoriented Vaati staggered away and disappeared into the evening fog.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Evil King Ganondorf sat in the large chair by the wall, staring angrily at the blank space where his trophy used to hang. All that remained was the pieces of the purple crystal strewn all over the room. He rapped his fingers on the arm over and over again as he attempted to plan his next move.

The sages were missing, the princess was missing, and now Link had gone missing, as well. The matter of the sages and the princess had been a trivial matter not even worth his attention, until Zelda launched a surprise attack on him and stole back the Triforce of Wisdom. As it did not rightfully belong to him, it did not take much for him to lose it. He was plenty powerful with the Triforces of Power and Courage still in his possession, but it was still a harsh slap in the face. After that, she disappeared again.

He was plenty angry at his loss of the Triforce of Wisdom, and would surely tear Zelda limb from limb if he ever found her, but he knew that with only one Triforce piece, the girl would still be powerless to do anything to affect the dark world he had since created. Instead of dedicating himself to finding her - which, in hindsight, was a neglectful mistake - he turned his efforts into journeying out to find new lands to conquer.

When he returned, there was another insult awaiting him in his tower. Link - the trophy of his victory four years earlier - had disappeared. Judging by the fact that the distasteful scent of white magic hung in the air, and that Link was so severely injured that he couldn't have possibly survived outside the crystal on his own, he must have been stolen away by the two brat sorcerers he had banished from Hyrule after his victory over them.

His initial reaction had been disbelief. In order to banish the sorcerers back to their own world, he destroyed the Ocarina of Time, which was the vessel upon which they had traveled to Hyrule in the first place. Unfortunately for him, the ocarina had been constructed with safety features he had not anticipated. Although it crumbled in his hands, and the sorcerers were sent away from Hyrule as he had hoped, he could not completely destroy the infernal instrument. It broke apart into six separate pieces, which immediately began to glow, and flew from his hand in several directions, to the faraway corners of Hyrule. After that, the Master Sword disappeared. The auras of both the ocarina and the sword disappeared completely.

The Ocarina of Time, though in pieces, still existed, hiding itself in several different places. He had managed to find one of the pieces himself. He tried to destroy it several times, but it really would not allow itself to be completely eliminated. He decided that if he couldn't destroy it, it would at least make sure Zelda wouldn't get it. He kept it tucked away in his armor at all times, never letting it out of his possession. When Zelda had attacked him to get the Triforce of Wisdom back, she had been in close quarters with him briefly. There was no way she would have missed its aura. She _had_ to know he had it. He hated the feel of it and regretted having to carry it with him, but it was the only way to guarantee it would be safe. They would have to kill him to get it.

But since those two brats were sent away when he broke it, it was safe to assume that it could no longer be used as their vessel. Not in its current state, at least. ...So, how in the hell did they manage to make it back?!

As much as he hated to admit it to himself, it appeared he had underestimated them once again.

Whatever the case, he could no longer ignore the situation any longer. He could no longer sit in his tower feeling proud of himself. It was okay to let Zelda and the sages run around in their futile attempts to oppose him, but now that Link was gone and the sorcerers had clearly somehow wormed their way back into Hyrule. The situation threatened to turn ugly, especially if they all managed to find each other. All this time, he had been unable to find where Zelda and the sages were hiding, and he was not having any better luck finding the sorcerers. He would think that _their_ power would be easy to detect, being as unique as it was, but they were absolutely nowhere to be found.

This was troubling him greatly, which is why he was still sitting in his big chair, staring at the wall.

It's true that he had defeated them four years ago. But it was far from a landslide victory. While he had managed to withstand that girl Lydia's unexpected white magic attack, it had certainly taken its toll on his body. Would he be able to stand up to such an attack again? Even with two Triforce pieces, he was uneasy. The fact that Link had thrown himself in front of an attack to protect the girl is what really turned the battle in his favor. Had all three of them stayed in top form, he may have still lost in the end.

He had mulled this over in his mind several times in the last few days. So what?, he would think. He'd gotten stronger over the past four years, right? If they picked a fight with him again, who says he wouldn't defeat them easily? The power of two Triforce pieces was nothing to be trifled with - they had saved him in the previous fight. But Ganondorf was not a stupid man. If he had honed his skills over the past four years, there's no reason to believe that those sorcerers hadn't been doing the same. He was hardly an expert in that type of ancient magic, but it was probably safe to assume that their means of getting back to Hyrule without the Ocarina of Time involved some type of complicated magic that took them the entire four years to develop. It was not farfetched that they would become obsessed with getting back after what happened. If this was the case, it was also very probable that they had become stronger magic-users overall, which made them even more dangerous than they were before. They were both adults now, and he would be stupid to take them lightly.

If they somehow got the jump on him, it would not be hard for them to steal back the Triforce of Courage, and heaven forbid, for that blasted sorceress to steal the Triforce of Power from him. He could not afford to be caught off guard. He would surely be defeated if he used the same tactics as he had before. They knew him well and they knew his ways. If he were to make a move now, it's possible that they would be able to side-step him. If he hoped to gain another victory over them, he would have to approach the situation from an entirely different angle. Something new. Something fresh. Something they hadn't seen before.

As he was coming to this conclusion, he suddenly felt a presence. It was faint and distant, but it was something he had never felt before. He felt power... and darkness. He painted a picture of it in his head. A person... a broken and weak person, but having a strong power within. This was not any person he had ever felt before. This was someone new. Someone of the darkness, much like himself.

Before he could put any further thought into it, he suddenly felt a much stronger, much more familiar presence. The hair on the back of his neck stood straight up. This feeling... That distasteful scent of the ancient magic... His stomach knotted as he leaned out of the closest window of his stronghold and gazed south. This was something he had not felt in a while, but there was no mistake. He was once again sensing the presence the sorcerers. The aura of their magic appeared suddenly, as if it was just now breaching this plane of existence. ... _That_ was it, he realized. _That's_ why he hadn't been able to detect them since Link had disappeared from the tower. They must have taken him back to their home world, the only place where he'd be unable to reach them, even with all of his current power.

He was gripping the stone windowsill so tightly that it threatened to crack between his fingers. No more games, no more ironies. He couldn't afford to play around anymore. He would find them and crush them right now, before they had a chance to even gain their footing in this changed land. Teeth gritted in determination, Ganondorf whipped around and disappeared back into the darkness of his tower.

* * *

The ruined Hyrule was dark and quiet, seemingly devoid of any life, with the exception of the occasional crow flying overhead in a search for something to eat. The wind sounded ghostly and sinister as it blew through the newly formed canyons in Hyrule Field. The Dragon Slave crater stood gaping in the southern field, as it always had. As the wind blew past it, dirt tumbled down into the hole, further eroding it.

Though heavily blocked out by the dark clouds, one could tell where the sun was if one looked carefully enough. The sun was just starting to rise in Eastern Hyrule, making a futile attempt to shine down on the spot where a dark, swirling vortex was starting to appear.

Gordon was the first one to appear, emerging from the portal at a run. His square glasses managed to catch what little light there was in the area and reflect it as he moved swiftly, pulling the next person through after him. The green Link followed closely, keeping the pace perfectly. Vio came through next, pulling Blue behind him, who still had his eyes tightly closed, as they had been for the entire trip. Red and Lydia brought up the rear, barely squeezing through the portal as it closed tightly behind them and disappeared, leaving the six of them to the quiet of the ruined Hyrule Field.

"I still hate doing that," Lydia groaned, casually hooking her hair behind her ears as she looked back at where the portal had just been.

"It's certainly risky business," her brother replied as he looked around slowly. "No matter how good you are, mistakes can always be made."

"And I would know all about that, I suppose. I can admit that I've-"

The girl's speech trailed off there as her eyes found the four Links, facing away from her as they stood neatly in a row, staring north. It was then that she remembered that this was their first time actually seeing Hyrule's state themselves. They'd heard enough about it from Ganondorf, as Link had told her several days ago, but actually seeing it for themselves...

She tried to think of something to say, but nothing came. A sideways glance at her brother told her that he was also at a loss for words.

"...It's worse than we had pictured," Green said softly, with an unexpected smirk on his face. "We expected some damage... but this?"

Lydia's heart churned as her gaze wandered over to where Blue stood rooted to the ground. He seemed like he was trying to be a man by not crying, like he very obviously wanted to. His hands were balled into tight fists and his teeth were clamped down firmly on his lip.

Red cleared his throat briefly and nudged Blue in the arm. "Don't start that. We can't lose focus now." His voice was intentionally strong, but everyone detected the emotion in it that Red would sooner die than express voluntarily.

"Give him a break, Red," Gordon said gently. "This is a hard moment for everyone."

"He's right, though," Lydia added. Her comment surprised everyone. The most emotional one in the group was agreeing with Red's insensitivity?

Ignoring the raised eyebrows, the girl approached the blue Link and spoke softly. "As much as I hate to admit it, he's got a good point. We can't let this bother us too much. I mean, it's still Hyrule! See, see, look-." She turned his attention behind her, to the visible southern field. "See, there's my crater. It's still there. I can make some more like it if you'd like, if it would make you feel more at home."

Blue couldn't help but laugh. "You _did_ tend to tear up the countryside all the time, I guess. Hyrule wouldn't be Hyrule without your 'special touch'."

Lydia smiled. "My point is that this is still our home, and we have a chance to make things right. Let's not let this get us down."

"... _Our_ home?"

Not even realizing that she had worded it that way, she glanced around and met the eyes of the rest of her companions, who all stared inquisitively at her. Her brother had a little smirk on his face. He seemed to know exactly what she meant.

Her eyes softened and she smiled again, and she reached down to hold Blue's hand.

"Yes. This is our home." She looked around at everyone. "Even though not all of us were born here, we've all put our lives on the line to protect this place. So many adventures and memories... This will always be our home."

Vio, with a sophisticated smile on his face, spoke for the first time since arriving. "Very well put."

Lydia giggled. "Thanks."

"She's right," Gordon said to the rest of the Links. "I feel the same way, of course."

The air itself seemed somehow lighter as the four Links started to relax. Green had a very charming smile on his face.

"...Thank you," he said. "That means a lot. To all of us."

With a little yelp of happiness, Blue suddenly wrapped his arms around Lydia in a big bear hug. He gave the other three Links a playfully defiant look. "That's it, she's mine! I'm not sharing her with _any_ of you guys."

Green laughed, Vio smiled and put his hands up in an I-give-up sort of gesture, and Red's face turned the color of his clothes as he tried to pretend he didn't care.

"Aw, come on!" Lydia yelled at them with a playful smile on her face. "I wanna see you guys fight over me! It'd be so adorable!"

"Okay, okay." Gordon appeared at her side and gently pried Blue's arms off of his sister and shooed him away. "Lydia, you're the only person who has already experienced this Hyrule first hand. What do you think we should do first?"

The girl bit her lower lip and planted her hand on her chin in thought. She was silent for several moments as the rest of the group slowly huddled around her in a semicircle, intently gazing at her in anticipation.

Finally, she smiled awkwardly. "Not a freaking clue."

"Nice," Red said softly, receiving a sharp glare from Green.

Gordon sighed. "Well... It might not be the best idea to just go marching right up to Ganon's Tower right away. Maybe we should wander around for a while and get our bearings."

"I agree," Vio chimed in. "Other than 'things are pretty much destroyed', we don't know much about what's going on here. We need to find out what happened to everyone. I find it hard to believe that Hyrule is simply deserted."

"What about the sages?" Blue asked. "And Zelda?"

Green straightened up and peered off into the distance. "I don't like how empty this place feels right now. Finding whomever is left would be a good first start."

"Definitely," Lydia said, looking around uncomfortably. "I'd even be happy to see your bug right about now. ...I wonder where we should start?"

Suddenly straightening up and fixing his glance toward the east, Red stood ready. "Seems like we don't have to look...," he hissed.

Gordon looked up, too. "What is it?"

Quick to fall in line, the other three Links swiftly moved into a formation around the sorcerers, as if it were a rehearsed dance. "Something's out there," Vio said softly, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword. "Something that's trying to hide."

"Not anymore," Green warned. "Here it comes."

Still not seeing anything, the two sorcerers focused their gaze eastward, trying to see just what had set the Links off. As if like it had been asked to, it immediately revealed itself. A wispy-looking form zipped from tree to tree, almost too fast to follow with their eyes alone. It jumped up into the air, then came in for a graceful landing within speaking distance of the group, freezing in a kneeling position.

It was a person. It looked like it was a thin man with blond hair. The only feature anyone could make out was his unusual red eye color. Everything else, including the rest of the man's face, was covered by white wrappings. There was the symbol of an eye on the chest of the thin armor he wore.

When he spoke, his voice was soft, like a faint breeze. "...Amazing...," he said.

The sorcerers glanced at each other. Red was shifting his weight over and over, obviously ready to pounce.

The small man spoke again. "Four heroes with the same face..." Without making a sound, he slowly straightened into a standing position. He was somewhat shorter than he seemed at first. Maybe a couple of inches shorter than Link, who wasn't all that tall himself.

"I have been awaiting your return," he called to them, in a somewhat more confident voice this time. "For the return of the Hero of Time. And to think I would find not only the hero, but his sorcerer companions as well, whom were thought to be lost forever. The goddesses have answered our prayers." The man bowed, as if to royalty. "I am Sheik, a survivor of the Sheikah."

"The Sheikah?" Vio echoed, relaxing his ready arm somewhat.

"That's the old race that Impa belongs to, isn't it?" Blue asked quickly. Vio nodded at him.

"Wow," Lydia whispered to them. "I thought maybe Impa was the only one left."

"What do you want with us?" Red called out to the man somewhat sharply.

The man calling himself Sheik bowed slightly. "Please, be at ease. I am no threat to you. On the contrary, I am here on behalf of Princess Zelda."

The entire group let out sharp gasps. "Zelda?!" Green called out forcefully. "She's all right?!"

"Indeed, as are all of the sages, thank the goddesses." Sheik replied with a small nod. "They are in hiding, along with the other survivors of Ganondorf's uprising."

Gordon's voice called out from the back of the group. "So there are others alive, as well?"

"Thankfully, many more than you would expect, considering the extent of the devastation. We sensed your return, and I was sent to find you and bring you back to the hidden base." Sheik turned around soundlessly, and started to move forward as if to lead. "We must not linger here, or else we will be seen by forces from which we'd be better off hiding from for now. Please, follow me."

Nobody moved. Instead, the six of them huddled together and started to whisper amongst themselves. Sheik stood still and waited.

"What do you think?" Lydia asked.

"I don't feel right about this," Vio said. "It seems too good to be true. Too convenient."

"Yeah. I welcome convenient story devices as much as the next person, but this is almost too much for even me."

"But what else do we have to go on right now?" Blue asked them. "It's either we follow this guy, or we wander aimlessly until something finds us and tries to kill us."

"I'm as eager to find everyone as you all are," Green said in a low, cautious voice. "But what if this is a trick? Like Vio said... it seems too good to be true."

Lydia put her hand on Green's shoulder. "This is the way I see it, you guys. This is the only lead we've got, so I think we should follow him. Frankly, it things take a turn for the worse, there's six of us and one of him. If he tries anything, we'll make him eat dirt. Whoever he is, he seems to know who _we_ are, so I'm sure he also knows what we're capable of."

"Lyd's right," Red growled. "We can't ignore this. Either he leads us to Zelda, or we get to beat him up. It's a win-win situation."

Unable to stifle a laugh, Lydia replied, "Yeah, I guess that's the simpler way of putting it."

"Then it's decided," Gordon said. The boy straightened up and separated himself from the group. "We'll follow you," he called out to Sheik in a diplomatic voice.

The Sheikah man nodded. "Very good. Let us make haste, then. Our destination is in the East."

The rest of the group broke the huddle and started to walk. The Links broke off into pairs and started to talk to each other as Sheik started to lead the way.

Lydia brought up the rear. Trying not to smile as she overheard Red telling Vio that he almost _hoped_ something would happen so that he could blow off some steam, she stayed at the back of the group, keeping to herself. Her eyes occasionally darted across the landscape, as if waiting for something to jump out from under a bush.

It wasn't until now that she realized how dirty her glasses had gotten. It had been several days since she really cleaned them, and now they were speckled with dirt. With a small sigh of annoyance, the girl stopped walking, took her glasses off, and started cleaning them with the bottom hem of her shirt.

It took several seconds to wipe the dirt from the lenses, even though she was hurrying to get the job done. She was so badly nearsighted by this point in her life that she felt very vulnerable without her glasses on. The distance between her and the group had widened, and the more it widened, the less safe she began to feel. Not wanting to get left behind, she quickly put the glasses back on and pushed them up the bridge of her nose with her middle finger.

In that instant, she felt a faint presence. She looked up with surprise and twisted around, trying to locate the source. But the feeling had gone as quickly as it had come, and she couldn't tell where it had come from.

As her mind raced, trying to pin down what direction it had come from, a voice spoke right into her ear. "Problem?"

She shrieked and jumped to the side, finally seeing her brother standing only about an inch away. "God, don't DO that!"

"What are you spacing out about?"

She paused, her mind racing. "Um... Nothing. Just thinking about stuff."

"Come on, we're falling behind."

Lydia looked over his shoulder, and saw that everyone else had gotten quite a ways down the field. Green was waving for them to follow, and even from that distance, she could see Red's impatient stare. "Oh, damn, you're right."

Letting her uneasiness carry her, she and her brother caught up with the rest of the group quickly, and they all continued toward Eastern Hyrule.

* * *

 _They're coming_ , he thought. _I can feel them..._

Poised in the top of one of many trees along the top of one of the new cliffs in Hyrule Field, Ganondorf waited. A lot of the trees in the field were mostly dead and bare-looking, but some more resilient types still offered visual shelter. The batch of trees he had picked to observe from overlooked a newly-formed valley that stretched from west to east.

Though he had been unable to locate the specific location of Zelda and the sages after all this time, he had eventually come to the conclusion that they most likely were hiding out in the forest. He had to admit that, within Hyrule, that was probably the safest place for them. The forest had always had its own type of magic. Whenever he attempted to cross that threshold, he could feel himself getting weaker and weaker, the longer he stayed. The forest's magic had a frustrating effect of surppressing his own. As a result, he was never able to really make any headway when it came to finding their hiding place.

But since he was fairly certain that they were indeed hiding in that forest somewhere, Ganondorf knew that the sorcerers and Link would probably head that way. With the way the ground had cracked, this valley was the most direct route to the forest in the east. So, Ganondorf picked a spot overlooking the valley where he would absolutely be able to see them coming. And once he saw them, he would destroy them. The problem with this valley was that maneuverability would be limited for them. They wouldn't be able to avoid his attacks if he surprised them.

He would only have one shot, he knew. In order to get the jump on them, he was concentrating his power on suppressing his aura and presence, so that they wouldn't know he was there until it was too late. Since he had two Triforce pieces, it was very difficult for him to suppress it completely. If his concentration wavered even a little, anyone with the third Triforce piece would be able to detect him easily. Though he found it unlikely that Zelda would be out in the open like this. That in no way meant that he could be careless, he knew. The sorcerers were powerful, even without Triforce pieces. If his concentration wavered too much, it wouldn't be hard for them to detect his presence, either. He would have to wait silently, concentrating on staying magically hidden, until just the right moment...

And now he could feel them coming. He was certain of it. They were approaching a bend in the valley, and after they got around it, they would come into his view. He would wait for them to get close, and would strike. Doing so would break his concentration and allow them to sense his presence, but if he waited until just the right moment, they would not have time to react, not even Link. He would destroy them right here, right now.

They were almost to the valley bend. Ganondorf's teeth clenched and his muscles tightened. Oh, how he had waited for this moment.

The first person around the bend was actually someone he did not recognize. A really small, nimble-looking man wearing Sheikah armor. The Sheikah...? Were they even still around?

Before Ganondorf could put any more thought into this, a familiar brown-haired boy with glasses appeared around the valley wall. The boy sorcerer, obviously a fully-grown young man now. He was much taller than Ganondorf remembered, although still very skinny. His heart began to pound... Since _he_ was there, then surely...

And then, there she was. That sorceress he hated so much. She had been fully grown the last time he had seen her, so she really didn't look all that different, except for the fact that her hair was once again quite long, a visual representation of the length of time it had been since that day four years earlier. Oh, how the very sight of her made him want to retch. It took every ounce of his willpower at that moment to keep his concentration on staying hidden for now, rather than just cutting her down that very second. Beads of sweat ran down his face as he looked on. He was focusing so hard on the sorceress that he almost didn't notice the very familiar figure appearing right in step behind her.

There he was - Link, apparently recovered from his injuries, magically-aided, no doubt. His clothes were slightly different than they had been before, but were still colored the same green of the Kokiri people. The sword he carried clearly was not the Master Sword. It was some kind of substitute weapon. Ganondorf was now completely convinced that _now_ was the time to strike. They still didn't have the Master Sword - the only thing he had any real reason to be fearful of.

This was it. He had to strike right now. If he allowed them to get any closer, he ran the risk of them noticing him there, even though he was hidden. He adjusted his footing on the large branch he was perched on. Without dropping his guard just yet, he called upon the power within him, bringing it to the ready. His mouth curled into a delighted sneer. Finally... Finally!

As he leaned forward, preparing to launch himself from his hiding spot, a fifth person rounded the corner. The sight of him made Ganondorf's breath catch in his throat. There suddenly felt like there was a rock in his stomach. Surely he was imagining this!

But eyes don't lie. A _second_ Link, this one completely identical save for the fact that his clothes were blue instead of green, had come into view.

Ganondorf didn't know what to do. He just sat poised on that branch, frozen and unable to move, overcome with disbelief. He had expected the sorcerers' magic to be stronger, but surely it was impossible to create a _clone_ of a person, right?

A third Link, this one clad in a deep shade of violet, appeared next. Ganondorf suddenly felt ready to vomit. _How could this be!? How could this get any-_

Dressed in red, yet another Link appeared. This one had a rather angry look on his face, and even though he wasn't looking directly at Ganondorf, the Evil King felt as if his very soul was being pierced by the intensity of that face.

 _No!,_ Ganondorf thought. _No! This is all wrong! This can't be happening! There are FOUR of him! How is that possible!?_

With a sickening feeling, Ganondorf realized his concentration on suppressing his magic was breaking in his panic. He knew he had to get out of there or they would sense him. He had felt confident in destroying just the originals, but when there were _four_ Links instead of the single one he had naturally expected... His smugness and confidence had faded like a morning fog when the sun came out. This changed the situation entirely! He had to get away...!

As he felt his magical guard dropping and the power of his two pieces of the Triforce seeping through the cracks, Ganondorf fled. He jumped from treetop to treetop, a completely uncharacteristic, frantic look in his eyes. The only thing on his mind was getting as far away from that valley as possible.

* * *

Sheik stopped suddenly and gazed upward, toward the northern cliff top of the valley. His one visible eye took on a momentary intensity.

He turned to look at the group of heroes that followed him. "Let us make haste," he said in his whispery, delicate voice. "It is unsafe for us to be here."

In no place to disagree, everyone else picked up the pace and fell into step behind the Sheikah.

As they walked, Lydia considered calling ahead to the slip of a man leading them, to ask where they were going, more specifically. But her better judgment told her she'd better just keep quiet. It was something about the way Sheik moved. He was quick and graceful, and was clearly maintaining awareness of everything around him at all times. Every shadow, every gust of wind, every blade of dry grass. Perhaps he had been vague about their destination on purpose. He obviously knew more about Hyrule's current climate than they did. Chances were good that speaking too loosely out here in the open would endanger revealing the hidden camp and its occupants. After all, for it to still exist under Ganondorf's rule after four years, it must indeed be well hidden.

Walking around in this ruined Hyrule was rather disorienting for the group. They found themselves continuously checking for landmarks that had been there previously, to get an idea of just where they were. Most were no longer where they remembered them to be. It wasn't until a tense, silent hour or so of walking has passed that anything around them looked at all familiar. They were approaching an opening in the east wall of Hyrule Field. It was partially eroded and even appeared to be a bit lopsided, perhaps the result of a previous earthquake. But it was still clear that this opening was the entrance to the Kokiri Forest, and beyond that, the Lost Woods. As the group looked around at each other's faces, it was clear they were all thinking along the same lines; gratefulness at seeing something familiar, but at the same time, afraid to see the state of what lay beyond.

Lydia definitely wasn't surprised that the hidden base might be in this region. After all, these woods had always had a special power. It was a subtle, quiet power that seemed to naturally repel evil. It would be foolhardy to think that the lands beyond this entryway would be somehow completely intact, that Ganondorf's reach had not been able to go this far. But perhaps the damage was lessened beyond this threshold, at least. Perhaps the forest still survived in a decent state, partially protected by its own power. Why else would a hidden haven for Hyrule's survivors be allowed to exist within?

But surely Ganondorf must have come to the same conclusion, Lydia thought to herself. Trying to find and crush any resistance that still remained in this kingdom had to be one of the Evil King's favorite pastimes. So why hadn't he found these survivors? Assuming it involved some kind of magic, Lydia found herself intrigued and eager to find out just what made this hidden base so hidden.

As they approached the dividing wall between Hyrule Field and the forest, Sheik turned slightly and motioned for the group to remain silent. It wasn't entirely necessary, as nobody had really said a word since they had started this trek, but everyone nodded their understanding. As silently as ghosts, the large group of adventurers slipped out of the ruined Hyrule Field and started into the forest.

Dusty canyon walls were slowly replaced by thin trees as the group continued on. The farther into the forest they traveled, the move confident Lydia became in her theory. Something definitely felt different in here. Glancing over, she could tell that her brother felt the difference, as well. Even the Links, with no innate magic of their own, seemed to be able to tell. Everyone seemed to relax more as they walked. This area felt a little safer. The air didn't feel as heavy, and it even seemed like more sunlight was allowed to penetrate this forest, even with the still-dense canopy of trees towering over them. The two sorcerers could still definitely sense some evil magic here, but nowhere near the level that had surrounded them back in the field. The forest seemed to be keeping most of it at bay with its own power.

Everyone was so preoccupied with the obvious difference between this area and Hyrule Field that their arrival in the Kokiri village took them all by surprise. Sheik continued on, but everyone else paused for a moment to survey their surroundings. The Links were looking slightly deflated all of a sudden. Lydia understood why; this probably wasn't the homecoming they had hoped for. But, on a second look, it certainly wasn't as bad as it could be.

All of the little houses that had previously been homes to the Kokiri children were clearly deserted. A couple of roofs had even collapsed inward. Previously tended gardens had been allowed to wither and had been taken over by wild grasses. The stream that ran through the village still existed, but the water looked a little murky. Various household items and tools were scattered about; some half-buried in the earth. The whole place had a look of a sudden abandonment.

Blue, standing closest to Lydia, trembled slightly. She couldn't tell if it was because he wanted to cry, or if it was from anger, or possibly both. Either way, he was clearly on the verge of getting emotional.

"Hey," she whispered to him, "don't get too discouraged yet. I'm sure the Kokiri made it out before things got nasty. I know you can tell things feel different here. I'm sure the forest fought off the magic long enough for them to escape."

Appearing to compose himself, he whispered back, "I hope so."

As if appearing out of nowhere, Sheik was suddenly beside them. Both jumped in surprise.

"Please continue to be silent," the Sheikah advised in a wispy voice. "These woods are certainly safer than the other areas of the kingdom, but we cannot let our guard down yet."

"Right," Lydia whispered to him, nodding her head. "Sorry about that."

"Follow me." Sheik turned his back to them and started toward the north edge of the village. "We are nearly there."

Nestled at the top of a hill in the north of the village was a path into the darkness of the Lost Woods. The group walked over debris and dead vegetation as quietly as they could as they approached it. The area was so silent that a passing breeze was almost loud enough to startle them. It seemed to make things feel even more unsettling, and they unconsciously quickened their pace, eager to cross over into the Lost Woods. They would be in much closer quarters then, not out in the open like they currently were. The change would be welcoming and comforting, almost like a mother's embrace. As they left Kokiri Village, Lydia silently prayed to the goddesses that what they found beyond this threshold would bring them hope.

* * *

Feeling weak, broken, and disoriented, a thin young man named Vaati stumbled through the ruined field, making very slow progress. He didn't even know where he was going, really. He just felt like he had to go _somewhere_. He had no idea where he was, and memories of what had happened to him were fuzzy at best.

A cold breeze blew past him, and he wrapped his violet-colored cloak more tightly around himself. His long hair, so fair and light in color that it managed to shimmer even in the almost non-existent sunlight, wasn't offering as much protection from the chill in the air as he would have hoped. The wind went right through it, straight to the sensitive skin of his neck. The weather was probably not as cold as it felt, he thought, but his weakened state was making him more sensitive to the elements.

He had to stop and rest. A somewhat large tree stood nearby. It was stripped bare and the wood had the appearance of being petrified... Vaati thought that that tree must have looked beautiful once, but it was clear something catastrophic had happened to this place. Even so, the dead tree was large and was somewhat stooped over just enough that it would still offer him some decent protection from the wind. He curled up in the lee of the trunk, wrapped his cloak around himself, covered his long ears with his hair as best as he could manage, and tried to make sense of what was going on.

Vaati couldn't remember much. He had recollection of some kind of battle. He closed his eyes and tried to picture it. He was up against a powerful enemy... No, four. There had been four of them. Yes, that was it. Four young boys that had the same face. He had trouble picturing that face now. The battle had been fierce...

His eyes closed tighter as a shiver ran up his spine. There had been something else, too. A dark presence in the back of his mind during that battle. Something that had been... influencing him. He couldn't remember what it had been, though.

 _Who won that fight?_

It hadn't been him, he soon remembered. He had been defeated. And then, there was darkness. He felt imprisoned somewhere. Not in a physical place, but in some sort of mystical plane. It had been really unpleasant. He didn't feel complete there. It was like his body had been scattered in all directions. Vaati trembled as he remembered his imprisonment in that place... that place he couldn't quite recall.

 _Why was I in a battle?_

He couldn't remember why he was even fighting those four boys. He saw himself in his mind using magic... his opponents had swords...

Vaati's eyes snapped back open and his breath caught in his throat. The vague memories suddenly started to snap together as his mind cleared.

The Four Sword!

 _That's right. I was sealed away by the Four Sword._

It hadn't really been four boys he had fought back then. It was a single boy warrior who had been split into four different entities when he took up the Four Sword for battle. He had been fighting them for some reason, they cut him down, and he was sealed away by the sword. That's what the darkness had been. That horrible, sanity-stealing darkness he had been in for so long. In that place, it felt like time had stood still, strengthening a feeling that he would never be released. A single tear streamed down his face as he remembered the despair he constantly felt while he had been sealed.

Vaati gritted his teeth and rubbed his eyes. "Fool, stop crying and be a man" he grunted. It was the first time he had spoken aloud since coming to this place. His voice was unexpectedly strong for someone so frail-looking.

After regaining his composure, he tried to remember what had happened next. Darkness, darkness... more darkness... And then suddenly he felt a jolt of energy, and it felt like his scattered body snapped back together. A light had appeared, and he felt like he had been flying through some kind of vortex. And then he woke up here, in this place that felt so strange, yet oddly familiar.

The wind picked up again briefly, blowing Vaati's light violet hair into his eyes. Hooking some of it behind his ear with his slender fingers, he took a breath to steady himself. His mind was racing and he struggled to keep up with everything he seemed to be remembering all at once. The details were still missing, but he had most of the picture now. The only big question still remaining was why he had been in that battle that had gotten him sealed away. Vaati was self-aware enough to know he wasn't the friendliest person that ever existed... He had always been a bit of loner, and never really had anyone he could have called a friend. In fact, he had actually been treated pretty badly by people growing up. There had always whisperings about how strange he was, comments about his innate power... Everyone had been afraid of him.

It would make anyone resentful, but not automatically aggressive. Vaati never had been. Instead of lashing out, he simply withdrew. What in the goddesses' names could he have done that had gotten him in to a life-or-death struggle like that? And why had the seal now been broken?

Vaati could slowly feel his strength returning. If he rested a while longer, he might be able to move on. But where on earth was he supposed to go? He didn't even know where he was!

All he knew is that he was in some sort of large clearing, and based on the position of the mostly-obscured sun, he assumed he was in the southern half of it somewhere. From his small shelter against the north side of the tree, he could see the rest of the clearing before him. There were many cliffs and valleys off in the distance, but unless Vaati's eyes deceived him, they looked like new formations. Perhaps the ground had been ruined in whatever catastrophic event had killed this tree he now rested against. Maybe, in better days, it had been a grassy field.

Slightly off to the northwest, he saw what looked to be a large compound. There was no telling what it had been in the past, but whatever ruined this place had sunken it partially into the earth, so it was probably no longer in use. There really wasn't much to see other than this from where Vaati was now. Maybe if he ventured onward he would find more landmarks.

One other thing didn't escape his notice, however. In the far, far north, he could see some kind of dark mountain. Vaati squinted his eyes as he looked at it, trying to see through the gloom. The mountain seemed to have a jagged peak... No, that was no mountain, he realized. It was a castle. Some kind of keep or fortress.

Something stirred within him. Though it felt familiar, he did not remember what it was. Some kind of darkness within him, reacting to the sight of that castle. It rose within him, like bile in his throat. It was his magic, he realized, having momentarily forgotten about his own power. Seeing that castle was making something within him want to unleash that power, possibly in a very destructive way. Vaati was absolutely shaking from the effort to keep the power under control.

Slowly and steadily, the magic calmed. Vaati felt a wave of relief come over him as the power quieted and he regained control. He was in an unfamiliar place, and having his magic run wild here could have been very dangerous. He suddenly realized that he was standing. At some point he had jumped to his feet and left the shelter of the three. His cape billowed wildly around him as the southern wind continued to blow fiercely.

He risked another glance at the castle in the north. He felt the magic stir again, but it stayed quiet. What was it about that castle that had made his magic go crazy like that? It had created such intense feelings of anger within him that he had almost lost control. But why? This place certainly wasn't his home, so he had no connections here, right?

Against his better judgment, Vaati decided that he would start heading in that direction. The rest had done him good and he felt strong enough to start walking. There was something significant about that castle, and he was going to find out what.

Vaati wrapped his cloak around him again and started walking, taking slow, measured steps at first. His eyes were glued to the sight of the dark castle in the distance. The dark magic within him continued to stir, the feeling growing more intense the farther he went. He stayed well in control, but it was clear the magic was growing eager to reveal itself. It was urging him on, tickling his mind, telling him it really wanted him to get to that castle. He would not let the magic control him, but his curiosity had gotten the better of him and he was going to listen to the magic's desires for now. Without really meaning to, Vaati had picked up speed and was now running.

* * *

Ganondorf sat on the stairs. He hadn't even made it all the way up to the tower. He was sitting in the winding staircase about halfway up, too overcome to continue.

 _How?,_ he asked himself. _How has it come to this?_

He kept trying to think of what he was supposed to do now, to no avail. He had somehow become outnumbered six-to-one. _Six!_ And that was without even considering Zelda or the Sages, all in hiding somewhere, waiting for their opportunity to strike back at him. Even with two Triforce pieces, things were still looking very, very bad. For the first time in years, the Evil King was genuinely worried about his chances.

"Get a hold of yourself," he said aloud. "Think. Just think. There has to be a way."

Zelda and the magic boy and the _multiple_ Links aside, Ganondorf knew his biggest threat was that blasted girl sorcerer, because of her connection to the Triforce of Power, much like his own. If he lost one of his Triforce pieces, that was definitely it for him. He was way too outnumbered to win this fight with only one piece.

The answer was simple. He had to kill her. Not mentally torment her and mess with her, like he had done before, but to actually do something along the lines of removing her head from her neck. He wasn't playing around anymore.

But, of course, this was much easier said than done. Today, they hadn't expected him to show up so soon, and they were not really on guard. Luck had also played a part in it, he had to admit. Once they knew he was on the move, as they would know soon if they didn't know already, the sorceress would sense him coming from a mile away. He had lost his chance for any kind of surprise attack. This wasn't something he could do himself. It would have to be done by someone under his command that they wouldn't be suspicious of right away; someone normal-looking. But nobody under his command was nearly powerful enough to kill that girl.

Ganondorf sighed and rested his head against the wall behind him. That clearly wasn't a viable option. He'd have to think of something else.

There he sat in the silence of the staircase for several minutes. The light from the torches flickered all around him, making the shadows dance. Outside the window, it was clear that the wind had picked up. He wasn't so high up that he couldn't still see the tree line way off in the distance, and those trees were swaying back and forth, as if joining in the shadows' dance.

Suddenly, Ganondorf felt the presence of a dark energy. He stood and crossed the stairway to the line of windows along the outside wall. The energy was growing stronger by the second. It felt somewhat similar to his own, but still different enough that one could definitely not mistake it for his. It was somewhere way off in the distance. He remembered this presence - he had felt it very briefly right before he felt the sorcerers' aura as they had returned.

Just as suddenly as it came, the energy died back down. If he concentrated on it, Ganondorf could still feel it slightly. He stood there in the stairway of his tower, holding his breath, afraid to move a muscle, lest he lose track of the faint remnants of that energy. A few more minutes slowly crept by, and nothing else happened.

And then, the presence was on the move. It was coming closer, slowly at first, then started to pick up speed.

 _Whatever it is, it's coming for a visit,_ Ganondorf thought. Unable to completely suppress his interest, he smiled a little bit as he started back down the stairs.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The woods were quiet at first - deathly quiet. Out in the open, there had at least been the occasional sound of the howling wind to fill their ears. But here in the shelter of the Lost Woods, the trees mostly blocked the rushing wind, resulting in a silence that was downright eerie. Not one for details, Lydia hadn't really noticed or worried about it at first, but when one of the Links quietly muttered that even _he_ couldn't hear so much as the sound of an insect, it made her pretty nervous.

This certainly wasn't an ideal situation. Aside from Lydia's very brief visit before, none of them were familiar with this new Hyrule. To make matters worse, they were putting their trust in this suspicious-looking man that was leading them to who-knows-where in a secluded part of the forest. This was how a lot of police cases started back home.

In an attempt to not get too uneasy, she reminded herself that this guy was completely outnumbered. She alone was going to be a nightmare for him if he tried anything funny. She hadn't really exercised her magic to any extent in four years. Aside from that major burst of magic she had used to save Link's life after she found him in Ganondorf's tower, she hadn't really used it at all this whole time. How could she back home? Even a light spell would have freaked people out. Lydia wasn't one to be too cynical about human nature... but even an optimist couldn't completely deny that while a person is generally rational could come to accept something new and unfamiliar, _people_ were afraid of what they didn't understand, and if you didn't tread lightly, things could get ugly very quickly.

That being the case, Lydia had kept her magic bottled up for four years, and she was absolutely dying to let loose on something, like the old days. And if this Sheik character made any sudden moves, he would bear the brunt of it. And he probably knew it. But even so, all of his nervousness and caution seemed to be directed at the world around him, not at the people with him. He had made it clear back in the field that he knew who they were, so he of course must know how dangerous they all could be. And yet he seemed to be at complete ease about them, as if he'd known them for years.

She was startled out of her thoughts by a snapping sound. She looked over to see her brother lift his foot from a broken twig, looking around apologetically. Sheik had stopped in his tracks, his one visible red eye glaring in alarm. When he realized what the source of the sound was, he relaxed again, and continued onward without saying anything. The Links all followed right away, their feet effortlessly avoiding the noisy underbrush. They seemed to do it unconsciously.

The sorcerers looked at each other, obviously afraid to move. Their human-ness made them way too clumsy to move soundlessly. Lydia considered for a moment that maybe they could just not touch the ground at all. They _were_ sorcerers, after all, right? She whispered this suggestion into her brother's ear so quietly that she wasn't so sure he'd be able to understand it. But he did, amazingly, and replied just as quietly.

"Do you see how on-edge that guy is?" he whispered. "Even in the shelter of the forest, he doesn't want our passage to be noticed. Using any kind of magic might not be a good idea."

Lydia rolled her eyes. "It's a levitation spell, for heaven's sake. It's not exactly the magical big-leagues. I don't see why we can't just-"

She cut herself off mid-sentence when she noticed that Sheik was standing next to her, with his leering red eye staring her right in the face. She clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle a surprised yelp.

"I do appreciate your efforts to be silent," he said, his voice no louder than a passing breeze. "But we are drawing close to where Hyrule's survivors hide. The young one is right. We do not want to risk detection by using magic this close to the hiding place."

"...Okay," the girl mouthed silently, looking a little embarrassed. "Sorry."

Sheik stepped back, turned around, and continued on into the forest.

Lydia rolled her eyes again, at herself this time. She glanced over at the imposing-looking group of identical warriors, and saw that they were all giving her encouraging smiles. Blue broke from the rest of the group and quietly backtracked to where she was standing. Grinning, he offered her his hand.

"Just step where I step," he whispered.

Shaking her head with playful exasperation, she took his hand. She offered her free hand to her brother, so that he could follow as well. Blue led them quietly in a zigzag pattern through the brush.

The deeper they went into the forest, the thicker the foliage got. What little sunlight there was became even more blocked out with every passing minute. There was still enough light for the sorcerers' weak human eyes to see, but the shadows were intermingling in a rather disorienting way. Lydia was really glad that Blue was there to lead her through the brush, because otherwise she probably would have found a tree with her face by now. But amazingly, though her short-distance perception was completely off, she still had a pretty good general idea of where they were. Ever since entering the Lost Woods, they have been heading straight east. If she or her brother had to come through here alone in the future, it would probably take them longer, but they would find their way eventually. She took a little comfort from that knowledge as the trek continued.

Gordon wasn't quite so at-ease. He also noticed that they'd been traveling in what was pretty much a straight line. How well hidden could this place be when all it took to find it was to walk in a straight line? After a moment of considering, he had another thought. Maybe it was for that very reason that it stayed hidden. When one was looking for something that was supposed to be well-hidden, would they bother to look in the really obvious places? Also, he thought to himself, perhaps it wasn't so much the location that was hidden, but rather the entrance. These were the Lost Woods, after all. Things were never as they appeared here. It could be that what they sought was in plain sight.

The sorcerers were so lost in their thoughts that they were taken completely by surprise when the group stopped walking. Lydia didn't stop quickly enough and smacked right into Blue's back, almost knocking him over. He regained his balance, then grabbed her shoulders and helped her regain hers, too. The endearing smile on his face made it clear that her clumsiness didn't bother him in the slightest. She grinned an apology, then looked around, trying to see what had stopped the progress.

Sheik was standing before a very large tree. It wasn't much taller than any of the surrounding trees, but it was clearly quite a bit wider. It seemed to have about the same width of five people standing shoulder-to-shoulder.

"This is it," came Sheik's quiet voice. "Here dwell the survivors of Hyrule's cataclysm."

"This tree?" Red asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "If you're hiding them in the branches, you've done a nice job. I don't see anything."

Everyone else was too surprised by Sheik's response to react to Red's attitude. He chuckled lightly, and was probably smiling slightly beneath his face coverings. "Watch closely," he said, with a confidence that almost sounded like pride.

He raised his hand to place it against the tree's thick bark. When he touched it, his hand went right though it and disappeared, leaving only the rest of his arm visible.

A little smirk appeared on Gordon's face, having guessed it would be something like this. The Links barely even stirred as they watched. They had been around magic users too long to be surprised by things like this.

"Nice," Lydia said with a wide smile, making no effort to disguise how impressed she was. She approached the spot where Sheik's hand had disappeared inside the trunk of the tree. "A barrier. A really well-made one, too. I didn't even feel any magic around here. We would have walked right past this."

Sheik nodded. "We were very careful. Our very lives depended on keeping this concealed. For beyond this illusion lies our safe hold, where we recovered from the catastrophe, rebuilt our lives, and trained ourselves in the hopes of someday reclaiming our land."

Without another word, Sheik stepped forward and disappeared completely into the tree. The illusion steadied behind him, once again having the appearance of being nothing but thick bark.

Red sighed. "Are we really going to trust this guy?"

"We don't really have a choice," Vio answered.

"I know, I know. I just like to know what I'm walking into. This whole business makes me nervous."

Lydia walked over with a playful grin and patted him on the cheek. "Don't worry. If any baddies try to get you, I'll be your protector!"

Not able to help himself, he laughed. "Thanks. I feel much better now."

"Let's get going, then. Nothing's gonna get done unless we go forward."

To drive the point home, she broke free from the group first and jumped right into the tree with no hesitation. The others followed one by one, until the forest was once again empty and quiet.

* * *

On the other side of the tree, the light was brutal. It bore down so intensely from above that everyone had to shield their eyes. Coming from that dark forest into this bright space with no time to adjust was unbearable.

It took several awkward, blind moments, but eventually they were able to lower their hands and squint into the light. And what they saw, or what they were only somewhat sure they saw, left them all in stunned silence.

The source of the light was the sun. It was directly above them, shining down in all its golden glory, set in the background of a blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds the likes of which Hyrule clearly hadn't seen in a long time. The sun illuminated a great meadow that stretched out before them, rich in green grasses, flowers, and many large ponds. A thick line of trees acted as the meadow's border on all sides. The border of trees gave the whole scene a look of having been designed. The beautiful meadow was quite large, comparable to Hyrule Field before it was ruined. The ground was not quite flat, but rather rolled gracefully up and down where it was dotted with hills.

For several moments, everyone just stood with their mouths hanging open. It was Red who finally found his voice.

"Well, I told you so."

Green raised an eyebrow and somehow managed to pull his gaze away from the meadow long enough to look at his twin. "What on earth are you talking about?"

"I'd think it was obvious what on earth I'm talking about. Sheik killed us all once we let our guard down. We must be in heaven now."

"If that were the case," Blue asked with a smile, pointing ahead of them, "why would _he_ be here, too?"

Sure enough, Sheik was standing not too far from everyone, at the base of the nearest hill. He turned and spoke to them, his voice not the whisper it once was. It seemed like he felt safer here. Safe enough to speak in a normal voice, anyway.

"I'm afraid this is not heaven, my dear friend," he said, "but I've tried to make it as close as possible."

"Make it?" Vio asked. "I'll admit this clearly is not part of Hyrule as we now know it. It doesn't seem possible that a place like this could exist there. What kind of power could create all of this?"

As Vio as asking that question, Lydia had finally decided that she wasn't imagining what she felt. This place... it was completely saturated with magical energy. She could almost inhale it. Judging by the look in her brother's eyes, he was feeling something, too. His eyes suddenly widened with recognition. His head snapped up and his eyes met Sheik's.

"The Triforce of Wisdom?!"

"What?!", his sister exclaimed. "Are you sure?"

Gordon continued to stare. "I used to have it. I remember that energy well. There's no mistake."

"Why the hell does _he_ have it?" Red growled, taking an aggressive step toward Sheik. "Last we knew, Ganondorf had all three pieces. That's how he was able to trash Hyrule like that!"

"And why didn't I notice it before?" The sorcerer looked a little dismayed. "I should have been able to pick up on it..."

Finally, Sheik spoke. "My apologies. I owe you an explanation."

"Damn right!" Red shouted.

Green put his hand on his angry companion's shoulder and held him in place. "Easy now..."

Straightening and looking at the young sorcerer, Sheik said, "You are correct. I do possess the Triforce of Wisdom. You didn't feel its presence until now because I was using all of my will to suppress it. It's the only way I can survive undetected on the outside."

He looked from face to face, then gently brushed his hair out of his eyes. "But we are safe now, so I can tell you the truth."

With a flash of light, the symbol of the Triforce of Wisdom appeared on Sheik's forehead. The symbol glowed more and more brightly until they once again had to shield their eyes. Wind swirled around them and drowned all other sound from their ears. After a few moments, the wind died down and the light faded. When they lowered their hands from their eyes, they found themselves once again stunned into silence.

Sheik was gone. Where he had been, a very happy-looking Princess Zelda now stood.

The entire group erupted into excited shouting. Lydia covered the distance between them in what looked like a single bound and wrapped her arms around the princess's neck. Zelda returned her embrace, trying and failing to hold back tears, and pulled Gordon into the hug when he got close enough.

"I can't believe it!" Lydia shouted, half-laughing from excitement. "You're really okay!"

"I was so afraid I'd never see you two again," the princess choked through her tears. "You've done so much for my kingdom... It ripped me apart inside to think things had ended that way."

The two sorcerers released Zelda from the embrace, and the princess approached the four Links, still rooted where they stood, all with triumphant looks on their identical faces.

Zelda wiped a tear from her eye, trying to compose herself again. "Goodness," she whispered. "There are somehow four of you. I don't even know where to..." Her voice trailed off for a moment. She finally approached Green, perhaps because he looked most like the original Link, and placed her hands on both sides of his face in an older-sister sort of way.

"I thought you were forever lost to us," she said, her voice breaking again. "Everyone thought you had fallen in that battle. And here you are again, as if returned to us by the goddesses themselves."

"Mercifully, no," he said, taking the princess's hands in our own. "Luck was on my— our- _his_ side, it seems."

Blue approached and said, "Ganondorf was holding us in the tower the entire time."

The princess looked appalled. "For what purpose?!" After a second of thought, her face fell. "Of course. It's Ganondorf we're talking about. He must have been pretty proud of himself."

"But it's all right!" Blue declared with a wide smile. "Lydia came to our rescue!"

Zelda looked at the sorceress, who grinned sheepishly and said, "He was the last thing I expected to find there. There I was, all ready to avenge Link by removing Ganondorf's eyes from his head and _feeding_ them to him... and..."

"And you gave all of Hyrule their hope back." The princess smiled gratefully.

Lydia blushed. "I do what I can."

Composing herself, Zelda stepped back and straightened the folds of her royal gown. "But why are there four of you?" She looked back at the sorcerers for an answer. "How is it possible?"

Vio stepped forward, slowly drawing the sword from the sheath strapped to his back. "It's because of this," he said, handing it to the princess, who began to examine it closely.

"So...," she finally said quietly, with her eyes still locked on the sword. "So you really don't have the Master Sword."

"No, I'm afraid not," Vio replied with a sigh. "Gordon found this sword as a temporary replacement, but it seems there was a catch. It split the original Link's personality into four separate parts, and here we are."

"Fascinating. I've never heard of anything like it. Where on earth did you find it?"

"More like _when_ ," Lydia chimed in. "Would you believe we had to _time travel_ to get that thing?"

Zelda gave her a blank stare.

"Oh, uh, we did that the same way the kid and I got back here. It took me years to do, but I developed a cross-dimensional spell. Ugh, time travel is so dangerous, though. Once we put _that_ sword back where we found it, I swear I am _never_ doing it again."

"Of course, we can't do that until we find the Master Sword again," Gordon added. "Do you know where it is now? I can only assume Ganondorf's got it stowed away in his tower somewhere."

Looking suddenly bothered, she answered, "If only it were that simple."

"What do you mean?"

The princess looked cheerful again. "We'll discuss that soon. There is much to talk about. Before that, I think there are a lot of people that will be happy to see you. Come."

She turned and started up the nearby hill. When standing just inside the entrance to this beautiful place, it was easy to get the impression that you could see everything from there. But it wasn't until they were climbing the hill that they realized just how much these low hills were hiding from them. Just how much this hill had been hiding once again took them by surprise as they stood up on the top and looked beyond.

The greatest portion of the center of the meadow had been cleared and cultivated, and had been turned into a sprawling city. It was rather make-shift and thrown together, but everything looked very sturdy and safe. Homes of all designs had been built, probably using materials from the surrounding trees. Crops were being grown along the outskirts of the city. And there were animals of all sizes grazing out in the distance. Sheep, small cattle, horses... all of the major species were represented here. Birds flew over their heads, casting the tiniest of shadows on the ground below.

The most amazing thing was just how many people they could see milling about. People of all races - Hylian, Gerudo, the Kokiri children, the rock-like Gorons... Even the Zoras were clearly managing to live here. At first glance, it appeared that each race had carved out its own "home base" in the city, resulting in the varying designs in the homes, but everybody mingled together in the center square, where it looked like trading posts and shops had been set up.

Standing in awe and amazement, the entire group simply stared for several quiet moments. Green was first to speak. "By the goddesses!" he exclaimed happily. "There are hundreds of them!"

Zelda smiled. "That's right. By a heavenly miracle, we lost very few when Ganondorf made his move and took over Hyrule. By the time he was strong enough again to act and strike out upon us, we had mobilized and were ready to evacuate to a safe haven. Better to fight another day and win than to fight unprepared and die."

"I can feel the magic here. You created this?"

"Indeed."

"With the Triforce of Wisdom. How did you get it back?"

The princess smiled again. "Like I said, we have much to talk about. But first..." She put two of her fingers in her mouth and whistled very loudly in the direction of the city. Without another word, she started to lead them all down into the city.

The people that had been milling about in the square had all stopped and looked at their direction in reaction to the whistling signal. A few people appeared to recognize them, and started to cheer. As they got closer, more people recognized them, and more cheers erupted. By the time they crossed the threshold into the city, the entire square was in an uproar. Some people were breaking away in running off, maybe to tell people they knew what was happening.

"Whew," Lydia breathed, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious. "What a commotion."

"Can you blame them?" Zelda asked, still smiling. "We thought we'd be fighting back against Ganondorf ourselves. I've tried to keep their spirits up, but they've been pretty convinced that we had no chance. Seeing you all back with us gives them hope again."

Once they entered the square, they were completely mobbed by people of all of Hyrule's different races. They were all pouring into the square from their respective parts of the city. The Hylian women that had been mulling about the shops in the square surrounded Lydia, bombarding her with excited questions. Gordon was doing his best to stay on his feet as some rather large Hylian men kept clapping him on the back.

It wasn't long before the edges of the city had emptied. The square was completely packed. Lydia looked around, trying to take everything in and not miss a moment of it.

A large group of Kokiri children had surrounded Green, pulling on his clothes and all yelling excitedly. His face lit up when his eyes fell on one in particular, and he picked her up, holding her close like an older brother would his baby sister. The sorceress recognized her right away. It was Saria.

She broke away from the people surrounding her and picked her way through the crowd back to where Princess Zelda still stood, her face beaming with happiness. "I just saw Saria!" she said to her with no small amount of excitement. "Are the other sages here, too?"

"All except for Rauru," the princess replied. "He insists that his place is in the Sacred Realm."

Lydia nodded. "I guess someone has to hold down the fort."

"But everyone else is here. Look, see?"

Zelda pointed off toward a group of large rocks towering over the people around them. A second look revealed them to actually be Gorons, and they had pulled Red aside. One particularly large Goron towered over him so greatly that he was completely blocking out the sun.

"It's wonderful to see you again, Hero Link!," his said about as excitedly as a Goron could manage.

Red craned his neck in his best effort to look the Goron in the face. "Um..."

"I'm Link, remember?" He grinned widely. His teeth were all the size of large rocks, and were probably as tough.

"Oh! Oh, right! You... sure grew fast, didn't you? Last time I saw you, you were only about..." He held his hand level at his waist.

Link the Goron looked up suddenly. "Oh, here comes Dad!"

Before Red could even turn to look, two huge tree-trunk arms wrapped around him from behind and lifted him a dozen feet up into the air. "Well, well!" Darunia's powerful voice boomed. "Look who it is! We thought you were a goner, brother!"

"Y-You know me!" Red managed to gasp. "Tough as nails! But I can't breathe now, so if you could just-"

"Dad! Dad! I found another one!" Link the Goron's huge arm disappeared into the crowd, and when it reappeared, Vio was wrapped up in the crook if his massive elbow. The scene looked similar to a little kid bringing home a stray cat, asking if he could keep it. Vio was surprisingly tolerant of the whole thing. He actually looked pretty amused.

"By the great mountain!" Darunia bellowed. "There's two of 'im! Come on, son, let's show everyone else! They'll be thrilled!"

The two Gorons started pushing through the crowd, still carrying Red and Vio with them like the day's vegetable harvest.

A small group of Zoras had crowded around Blue. He smiled as he talked to them. A female voice shrieked from somewhere in the crowd. "What?! _Where?!_ " Several bystanders were knocked aside as Princess Ruto exploded out into the open and tackled Blue at a full sprint, knocking him down.

"I can hardly believe it!" she squealed. "It's like you've come right out of my dreams!"

She continued to giggle uncontrollably and cling to him as he struggled to get up. He managed to prop himself up on his elbows, but seemed to give up there. He smirked over at Lydia, with somewhat of an "Oh, well" look on his face.

As Lydia tried to decide if this was making her jealous or not, Zelda interrupted her thoughts. "I have a tent set up in the northern part of town. It's large enough for all of us to sit comfortably. I'll be waiting there. When you are able to…" She snickered a little. "When you are able to reclaim the others from their various captors, come and meet me. We have much to talk about."

"Hm? Oh, right. Sure. Say, I haven't seen Impa or Nabooru yet. Are they around?"

"Yes, they're probably out at the training field."

"The training field?"

Zelda opened her mouth to say something, but Lydia waved her hand. "Right, right. Tent later. Much to talk about."

With another smile and a nod, the princess turned and disappeared into the crowd. The mass of excited people parted respectfully to let her pass.

"Ah, man," her brother groaned as he approached her from behind. His smile showed that he wasn't nearly as irritated as he sounded. "I thought they were going to smother me."

Green rejoined them then, still carrying Saria. She had her arms wrapped around his neck and was humming happily. When she saw Gordon standing there, she used Green as a springboard and leapt through the air into the sorcerer's arms. Taken by surprise, he struggled to keep his balance as Saria attached herself to him in much the same little-sister way.

"Whoa!" Gordon laughed. "Hey there!"

Saria grinned at him. "You got taller!"

"Why, yes, thank you."

Lydia looked up at Green and asked, "Hey, can you go save Red and Vio from the Gorons and pry Blue away from Ruto? We're supposed to go meet Zelda in the northern part of town."

Green sighed through his smile. "Yes, I suppose we don't have time for this right now."

She looked at him apologetically. "We need to know where we're going from here."

"Yes… yes, I know."

"Okay. She says she has a tent set up where we can all talk. Go rescue the others and meet us there."

When he started to walk off, she suddenly reached out and grabbed his arm.

"Wait, wait…," she said. "Listen, I'm sorry, I don't mean to be insensitive. I know this is a big, happy reunion for everyone. It is for me, too. It's just that—"

"It's just that you spent four long years stewing over Hyrule's fate and you want to see it finally saved." He gently wrapped his hand around the back of her neck, pulled her closer, and kissed her forehead. "I understand. I do, too. So let's make it happen."

With that, he turned and started away.

Saria let go of Gordon's neck and slid to the ground. "I'll go help him," she said. She bounded a few feet away, then turned around briefly. "I'm so glad you're all back. We missed you."

Lydia smiled back. "We missed you all, too."

The Kokiri girl grinned. "I'll see you later, okay?" She turned again and skipped off into the crowd.

The sorcerers stood silent for a moment, watching the commotion around them. This was indeed a momentous occasion. A couple of weeks ago, they had been sitting in their respective homes back in their world, having assumed for years that the best they could hope for was to get back long enough to avenge Link. Now they suddenly had everything they had lost back, and then some. It was the new dawn they only dared dream of.

"Kind of unbelievable, huh?" Gordon asked.

"Yes, sir… To be honest, I'm afraid I'm going to fall asleep here tonight, then wake up back in my apartment… with that huge hole still in my life…"

Her brother reached over and pinched her arm hard. She yanked it away with an angry yelp.

"Aagh!", she groaned, rubbing the sore spot. "God, man! What was that?"

"I'm just proving to you that this is real."

"There are better ways to—" Her voice trailed off, and her grimace slowly changed to a smile.

Gordon smiled back. "So, where is this place we're meeting Zelda?"

His sister waved him north, and they started walking. The sounds of the excited voices in the square didn't seem to quiet at all, no matter how far away they got. This was probably going to continue long into the night.

* * *

Later that evening, the four Links and both sorcerers had gathered with Princess Zelda in the royal tent that had been set up for her in this place. Although the word "tent" left much to be desired in its description. It was pretty large, for one thing, plenty large enough to accommodate all seven of its current occupants, and then some. There were very nice sitting pillows scattered around the covered floor, and Zelda had a very comfortable-looking sleeping space. There was a low table in the center that probably served several purposes, like eating, socializing, and planning. It was large enough that all seven in the group were able to sit around it with plenty of elbow room.

Lydia stretched momentarily and shifted her position on the sitting pillow. "Well, now that we're all here…" she started. _More or less in one piece_ , she thought to herself with a grin as she glanced over at Red, who was cursing under his breath as he waited for feeling to come back to his upper body.

Zelda nodded. "Yes, I'm sure you're all eager to hear everything that happened. I can only hope that once are finished here, we'll have some idea of what to do next, because I admit I am somewhat at a loss at this point."

She hooked some of her blond hair behind her ear absently. She stared down at the table, trying to decide where to start.

"A lot happened very quickly after the…" she stopped, swallowing. "After the last battle. It was truly our darkest hour as a kingdom. The Hero of Time had fallen, the sorcerers banished from our world, the Ocarina of Time destroyed…"

"And what of the Master Sword?" Vio asked. "We were wondering if Ganondorf had stolen it, but I'm guessing that's not the case."

"Well, it seems that the Ocarina and the sword were more closely connected than we'd realized. When Ganondorf destroyed the Ocarina of Time… the sword disappeared."

"Disappeared? As in… into thin air?"

"Yes, it disappeared right from its sheath. No one has seen it since."

They were all silent for a moment, gawking at the Princess. Finally, Red waved a hand in the air in exasperation and grunted, "Well, _that's_ just terrific. What are we supposed to do without it? The Master Sword has always been the key to everything! How can we hope to defeat Ganondorf, especially as he is now?"

"Have faith," Green said. "There's always a way, and we'll find it."

"Well, I thought I would be able to find it," Zelda cut in, "if I got the Triforce of Wisdom back. The Master Sword is the key to the Sacred Realm, so I naturally thought that perhaps the Triforce was connected to it."

"How did you manage it?" Vio asked.

"Since Ganondorf is not suited to carry the Triforce of Wisdom, I thought that launching a sneak attack against him while he was still weak from his battle with you all would give me the best chance to take it back. So, even before the dust from the battle had settled, I set out to sneak into his tower."

Red looked even angrier than he had a moment ago. "By yourself?!"

"I know what you're thinking, but a single person had a much better chance of sneaking in. And I was the only one who could have taken the Triforce of Wisdom back."

Vio placed a hand on Red's shoulder to steady him. "You can't deny the logic of it."

Red took a breath to steady himself. When it appeared he was ready to listen again, Zelda continued.

"I have to admit, I was terrified as I snuck through the corridors of his tower, but I knew that my people were counting on me, and I had to do this if we were to have any chance of surviving now. Since I didn't have the Triforce piece at the time, I didn't have to mask its presence, and it was just a matter of not making any sound.

I found him in his quarters. I had brought weapons with me. I knew they were only going to serve as a distraction to him as he was now, but that was all I needed – just a moment of distraction. I attacked him before he had even realized I was there. I came at him with a sword, and he managed to parry the blow… but he was mentally weak, and that exertion left him open. In that moment of weakness, I took the Triforce of Wisdom from him.

I barely escaped with my life. I thank the goddesses he was still so weak. Because of that, I managed to stay a step ahead of him. He chased me all the way to the forest, and as I had hoped, he was unwilling to follow me in."

Tear started to well up in her eyes, and she turned her attention to the four Links. "I didn't know you were in there," she said. "We had no idea you were still alive. If… If we had known, I swear, we all would have laid siege on that tower with all of our power to get you back. Element of surprise be damned."

They all smiled in response. "We know," Green reassured her. "It's all right."

Zelda wiped her eyes, calming down again. "You have no idea how difficult it was to suppress the surprise and relief I felt when I found you in the field today. _All_ of you. I had to keep my cover identity as Sheik intact out in the open."

"That's how you've gone all this time without Ganondorf finding you," Gordon observed.

"Correct. I knew that it would be wise for Ganondorf to never see Zelda again, at least not until it was time to strike back. So if I ever have to go out into the open, I go out as Sheik. Impa helped me perfect the disguise."

"Yeah, we had no idea it was you."

"But you're safe in here?" Lydia asked. "What is this place?"

The princess smiled again. "My greatest work," she declared with a playful smirk. "Taking the Triforce of Wisdom back from Ganondorf left him even more disoriented. It bought us a little time. The sages went to their respective homes and prepared everyone for evacuation. In the meantime, I stayed here in the forest and slowly created this place using the power of the Triforce of Wisdom. It is not a place that physically exists, per se. I'm actually not entirely sure how to describe it…"

"Is it kind of a dimensional thing?"

"I suppose you could put it that way. We're still associated with Hyrule here, but we are not a part of it. We exist separately. In order to find us, Ganondorf would have to not only know exactly where to look, but exactly _what_ to look for, and I find that highly unlikely.

When this place was finally complete, Hyrule's people left everything they had known and traveled here. Ganondorf tried to amass attacks to stop the evacuations, but we were constantly a step ahead of him. Like I mentioned, we lost very few people. Most everyone made it here. We even managed to save a good number of animals, too."

Her face fell slightly. "Of course, when he failed at his attack against Hyrule's people, he took out his rage on her landscape instead, as you saw. If we do manage to reclaim Hyrule… it's going to take many years to rebuild."

"I'm sorry to sound like a pessimist here," Gordon said, "but the land out there is pretty wrecked. Can it even recover from that?"

Zelda nodded. "I wondered about that, too, but the more I go out into Hyrule, as Sheik of course, the more I can sense a persistent dark energy all around me. It may very well be that some sort of nasty magic has blanketed the entire kingdom and is preventing even the most basic cycles of nature from taking their course. I'm hoping that once Ganondorf is gone, the land will be freed from that curse and will begin to recover."

"Slow down, I have a question." Lydia cut in, raising her hand as if she were in a classroom. "This whole discussion about the Triforce of Wisdom leads back to the Master Sword disappearing, right? How do you know for certain it disappeared? You would have to be there to see that happen, right?" Her eyes narrowed. "You weren't _there_ , were you? I certainly hope not, Miss Zelda. That would have been way too dangerous and I'd have to yell at you for it, even four years after the fact."

The princess smiled at her and answered, "No, dear, I wasn't there. But we do have a witness. Speaking of which…" She leaned to the side to see past them, toward the entrance to the tent. "You don't have to hover out there forever trying to be polite. You can come in."

"Thank goodness!" a tiny voice shouted. "I've been dying to see this for myself!"

A small ball of light that looked almost like an overlarge firefly zipped through a small gap in the tent material and started excitedly weaving around one Link at a time. "Wow, I thought people were exaggerating, but they were right! There's four of him!"

"Navi!" Blue shouted happily, raising his hand up for her to land on. She perched there like a little bird.

Lydia couldn't help but laugh. "Hey, bug! I'm glad to see you made it through!"

Gordon looked at Zelda. "This is your witness?" he asked.

Navi answered for her. "Yes, I was there. I know I was supposed to watch over Zelda, but she insisted I follow you all around so that she could know what was going on. So I… I saw everything."

"That's how we know so much about what happened during and after your battle with Ganondorf," Zelda explained. "Navi saw the whole thing from a distance."

"I was so upset!" Navi's tiny little voice rang. She fluttered off of Blue's hand and settled again up in his hair.

"It's okay, Navi," Blue said gently. "We're all here now."

"I'm glad. Didn't know _what_ I was going to do."

Her wings drooped, and she appeared to be resting. She must have grown tired from eavesdropping outside the tent for so long.

"All right, so we know for certain that the Master Sword is gone," Vio said. He turned to Zelda. "Once you got the Triforce of Wisdom back, you were hoping it would give you some clue as to the whereabouts of the Master Sword, correct?"

"Yes, I was hoping I would be able to feel its presence somewhere. Even if Ganondorf had shattered it into many pieces, I thought perhaps I could still feel at least its magical force, which certainly will not be damaged or destroyed so easily. But… I felt nothing. I still feel nothing."

Silence fell over the table.

"Then…" Blue said, speaking for the first time. "Then… what do we do now?"

Zelda spoke again, her voice strong. "My next hope was that since the Ocarina's destruction appeared to be the reason for the sword's disappearance, maybe the Ocarina would also be the key to finding it again."

"But wasn't the Ocarina destroyed?"

"It was," Lydia said, clearly confused. "I saw it happen myself. Ganondorf crushed it like an egg with his bare hands. That was how the kid and I got kicked back to our world."

To everyone's surprise, Zelda smiled. "It's because you were ejected from Hyrule so fast that you couldn't see the truth. Despite Ganondorf's effort, he could not destroy the Ocarina of Time."

Red tapped on the table with his index finger, emphasizing the point it was about to make. "If what Lydia said is true, it sounds like it was destroyed to _me_. Magical or otherwise, it was made of otherwise normal materials."

"You just answered your own question, my dear friend," Zelda said. "It's magical. Although a normal ocarina would have turned to dust, the Ocarina of Time merely broke into six pieces. Navi saw that happen, as well. Ganondorf, despite his best efforts, tried to destroy the pieces there on the spot, but they would not break any further."

Lydia noticed that everyone was looking at her. She shrugged. "I can't really say I'm surprised," she said. "Maya was good at what she did. Leave it to her to build that kind of safeguard into it."

"According to Navi, a few moments after Ganondorf broke the Ocarina apart, some sort of magic within it activated, and the pieces flew to far separate corners of the kingdom."

"So we have to find all six pieces and somehow reassemble it," Green observed. "Do we have any idea where the pieces ended up?"

Zelda's mouth turned up into a mischievous smile. "Sheik has been busy." She reached somewhere into the folds of her gown and produced a small leather pouch. She loosened the drawstrings and overturned it. Three large pieces of hard blue clay tumbled out onto the table.

Exclamations of amazement sounded all around the table. Lydia, Gordon, and Vio all reached out a took a piece, examining it.

"Sure enough," Lydia said with an encouraging smile at her identical Hylian companions. "The Ocarina of Time."

"You already got three pieces of it back?" Blue asked excitedly.

"How great is this?" Lydia said, still grinning from ear to ear. "See, I told you guys everything would work out! We just got here and we're already halfway to winning."

"Do you know where the other three pieces are, as well?" Gordon asked, not taking off the eyes of the piece of the Ocarina he held.

With a noticeable hesitation in her voice, Zelda answered, "Well, we're only sure about one of them. As for the last two, Navi has her fairy friends scouring Hyrule searching for them. They possess a magical force that we hope is too small for Ganondorf to easily detect."

"What about this one you said you're sure about?"

Zelda's face twisted in anger. "Ganondorf has it."

Red's face fell into his hand in frustration.

"He somehow got to it before I did," Zelda continued. "As I explained before, I wasted no time in acting after that battle was over. I had to make my move when he was still weak. As soon as I had the Triforce of Wisdom back, I could feel the Ocarina's aura. He had it in his clothes somewhere… but I'm afraid I wasn't able to get it back. I was lucky enough to escape at all, let alone with something additional that I didn't even know he had. I can only imagine that, by coincidence, he stumbled across it on his way back to the tower. That's the only explanation I can come up with." She chewed on her thumb in thought. "Though, I have no idea how he got past the guardian in his condition…"

"Guardian?" Vio asked.

"As part of whatever magical self-defense it was that sent these pieces all over Hyrule, each piece also became protected by a magical guardian. In my experience, monsters of some kind. You have to best them first in order to reclaim the piece."

"Really. It seems Maya was quite thorough with this."

"So what you're saying," Green cut in, "is that once we find these other two pieces, we'll have to fight something in order to reclaim them?"

"Yes," Zelda replied, "I believe so."

Lydia stretched her arms over her head, then smacked a fist into the open palm of her other hand. "Fine by me. I've been feeling the need to unload my magic on something for a while now."

"I agree with Lyd," Red said. "I'm looking forward to it."

"Here's the problem, though… What about that one Ganondorf has?"

The table fell silent again.

"I'm afraid we're at a bit of an impasse there," Vio said glumly. "We can't attack Ganondorf without the Master Sword and hope to win… but nor can we have any hope of getting the Master Sword back without the piece of the Ocarina that he has."

"Okay," Lydia said, "why don't we cross that bridge when we get to it? For now, let's focus on the other two pieces. As I hope I'm understanding it correctly, we're currently waiting to hear back from Navi's friends, to see if they have had any success finding them."

Zelda nodded. "Yes, that's correct."

"So we sit around here, doing nothing," came Red's annoyed response.

"Not doing nothing," Lydia said thoughtfully, then turned to Zelda. "You mentioned training fields. What's the story there?"

"Oh, yes. All of the men, and actually a lot of the women, as well, volunteered at the beginning of this whole thing to be trained for battle. That way, we'll have a small army prepared for when we planned to take our kingdom back. Impa and Nabooru have been in charge of that, and the warrior Gerudo women have been of great assistance, as well."

"Well, in the meantime, perhaps the Link troupe could help out there. Help train your recruits, I mean. I'm sure they could teach them a thing or two, and as he is now, he can cover four times as much ground." She finished the sentence with a playful grin.

Green shrugged. "Hey, you act like you're joking, but that's a very good point."

"I guess it's as good a solution as any," Red agreed. "At least I could feel somewhat useful if we're being forced to wait around here."

"And it looks like we'll have escorts," Blue said.

The two sorcerers looked at each other confused, and didn't understand what he was talking about until the entrance to the tent flew open and a scantily-clad woman with red hair and dark brown skin bounded through and pounced on Lydia.

"Hello again, magic girl!" she said enthusiactically.

Lydia laughed. "Hi, Nabooru! It's so nice to see you again."

Nabooru let go of Lydia long enough to give Gordon a strong clap on the back. "And to you, sir! Glad to see you're finally taller than your sister!"

"Well, you know, it was my life's goal." Gordon laughed.

The Gerudo warrior stopped and stared when she spotted the four Links all standing together with Princess Zelda. "Well, I'll be. I thought it was a rumor." She grinned from ear to ear. "Just wait until Nervani hears about this. I think she'd be a little outnumbered for that rematch she's always wanted!"

"I'm sure she'll get the chance," Lydia said. "They're going to help you down at the training fields for a while."

"Oh, great! Impa and I can show you the way. We're right in the middle of the evening drills right now. We just had to come down here and see what all the fuss was about."

Lydia hadn't noticed that at some point Impa had quietly slipped into the tent and now stood with Princess Zelda, as well. The large Sheikah woman was easily a head taller than anyone else in there. She exchanged polite nods with those around her, but otherwise kept silent. She didn't seem the slightest bit perturbed that she was surrounded by clones.

"As for me," Lydia declared, "I'm going out."

Her companions all gave her a stunned look.

"Out," Green repeated. "As in… out into town, right? To look around?"

The sorceress shook her head. "No time for that. Out into Hyrule. Keep in mind, I'm practically the person that created the Ocarina. Maybe not directly, but I'm the closest thing we've got. Maybe if I go take a look around, I'll be able to sense it if I get close enough."

"By yourself, you mean?" he asked, his eyebrows coming together. "And how can you possibly expect us to let you go out alone?"

"I'll stay in the air the whole time. Look, if there were still just one of you, I'd carry you around with me like I used to, but I can't take all four of you." She stopped for a moment, putting a finger to her lip in thought. "…And something in my gut tells me that it wouldn't be entirely wise to separate you."

Red looked insulted. "One of us is just as good as the original guy! You know that."

"That's not what I mean. I don't know any more about that sword than you do, but there must be a reason for it to work the way it does. You should stay together."

"I'll go with you," Gordon said, stepping closer to her. "You wouldn't have to carry _me_. And the two of us together are plenty scarier than anything out there."

Lydia looked at her brother for a moment. For some reason, she hadn't even considered taking him. It was an automatic ruling-out in her mind. Previously, she'd always worried that he was too young, not strong enough with the magic yet… But now, she was practically realizing for the first time that he was an adult now. He was just as strong as she was magically. _Stronger_ than she was in some branches of it, in fact. He wasn't a young tag-along anymore. He was a partner. She owed it to him to start seeing him that way.

"You're right. That's a good idea." She looked over at Green. "Okay?"

He stared at her a moment, his face tough as stone, obviously having an argument with himself. Finally, he said, "All right. But stay in the air as much as you can."

"Sure."

"Can you do me a favor and wait until morning? It's getting late, and if you're going out there without us, I'd rather you did it during the day."

Lydia looked toward the entrance toward the tent. The flap was partially open, and she could see now that the sunlight was turning orange. The sun was going down. "Wow, I really lost track of the time," she said.

Princess Zelda stepped forward. "I agree. You should stay here tonight. We'll get you all something to eat, and you can get a good nights' rest before going out there. Best to be prepared, correct?"

"All right. I guess a lot has happened today."

"Come, I'll show you where you can stay." The princess passed them and ducked back out of the tent and into the open air.

Lydia felt her brother's hand on her back, gently pushing her forward. "We'll leave first thing in the morning," he assured her.

"Good, good. First thing."

As they left the tent, the heard one of the Links – they couldn't tell which; they all had the same voice – ask to be shown to the training fields.

Lydia sighed. Her first thought was that she had waited four years… what was one more night? But then she had to remember how much they'd accomplished already. A couple of weeks ago, there was no hope for any of what they now had. Now, they'd gotten Link back, gotten him a sword, got back into Hyrule, found everybody, and they knew what the next step was in their quest.

A confident smile crawled across her face, and she started to hum to herself. Yes, things were going in the right direction. All they had to do was make sure the ball kept rolling.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The dark clouds that circled the peak of Death Mountain looked the same as they always had. It was one of the only things that still looked the same after Hyrule had been so drastically changed. However, the mountain only _looked_ unchanged. The Gorons, who used to make this mountain their home, had left long ago. This place was mostly devoid of life now, save for the very occasional Tektite or Lizalfos scouring the dusty paths for something to eat.

Today, that changed for a brief moment. Two tiny balls of light no bigger than insects zipped past the rocks and skeletal bushes.

One of them yelled out, "Come on! Come on!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!" the other one yelled back.

"Then go as fast as you can _faster_! We have to tell her Highness what we found!"

"I know, I'm trying!" The second fairy's tiny translucent wings were beating so fast that they practically disappeared.

The two fairies cut through what remained of Kakariko Village and flew south, toward the forest region. Behind them, something rumbled softly at the mountain's peak.

* * *

Lydia felt herself slowly becoming conscious, but she kept her eyes closed for the time being. She was a little afraid to open them. Despite her brother's little pinch attack, she still worried that it had all been a dream… a wonderful dream. She worried that when she opened her eyes, she would see the bedroom wall of her apartment. That drab, white wall that she hadn't been allowed to paint. The wall that had random little cracks and flaws that weren't bad enough to warrant repairs, but stole away the smooth appearance it had probably once had. The wall that had a dark smudge on it from when Gordon had accidentally knocked the dresser into it while helping her move in.

The wall that reminded her each and every morning that she had lost much of what she cared about in the world.

Gathering up her courage, she cracked one eye open, and a wave of relief washed over her when she saw the inside of a tent.

She rolled over slowly and stretched, trying to wake her joints up. She was wrapped up in a blanket that was surprisingly warm, considering how thin it was. Once she found her glasses and put them on, she saw her brother curled up in a similar blanket nearby. She reached out with her foot and nudged him awake.

He grumbled and started to unfold. "Oh, boy, it is morning already?"

"Barely," Lydia replied with a yawn. She looked around the rest of the sizable tent and saw that they were the only people in it. "Oh, for heaven's sake… Don't tell me those guys were at the training fields all night."

Gordon slowly sat up and cracked his back loudly. "No, I think they came back at some point. I don't remember when, though. I was half asleep."

Lydia looked again. There were four more blankets on the floor of the other side of the tent. Three of them were neatly folded, and the fourth was discarded carelessly to the side. Red's, probably.

"They sure didn't stay long."

Gordon shrugged and said, "They're probably pretty restless, especially since we're making them stay here today while we go outside. The training fields probably make them feel useful."

"Yeah… Link has never been an idle sort of person, that's for sure." She kicked her blanket off and stretched again. "Well, let's go check in with them before we go."

As she ran her fingers through her hair in an attempt to make it look a little less slept-on, Lydia shouldered her way out of the tent and into the daylight. It was not long after dawn, but without the chill in the air that one might expect. She yawned again. She was definitely not a morning person. If she had been back home, she surely would have preferred to sleep another few hours at the very least, but not today. Today, they had work to do.

Lydia waved for her brother to follow her, and they started to walk toward where the training fields were supposed to be. The town around them was still very quiet. All the people who _weren't_ looking to save the world today were still sleeping.

Once they were outside of the city proper, they came across some kind of a grazing field. At the far side of the field stood a modest wooden house. That was probably occupied by whomever was caring for the animals in this field. Various kinds of cattle were lazily standing about. Cuccos were bouncing around, occasionally pecking at some feed that had been scattered around there. Several horses were idling around, chewing on the grass.

One of the horses, a big, brown mare with a white mane, poked her head up and looked straight at them over the backs of the other horses around her. She whinnied and stamped on the ground a couple of times, then charged toward them. The sorcerers dodged to either side as the horse skidded to a stop, then playfully rammed her head into Gordon so roughly that he completely lost his balance and ended up spread-eagle in the dirt.

Lydia ran her hands through the horse's mane. "Nice one, Epona."

Somebody whistled from the general direction of where the horses were grazing. Waving, her long red hair flying, Malon was jogging over toward them. "I _wondered_ what had Epona so excited all of a sudden!" she said breathlessly when she got close. "I was hoping I'd be seeing you two soon! I was so happy to hear you'd made it back.

"Good to see you, too," Lydia said with a smile as Malon helped her brother stand.

"Is your father well?" Gordon asked as he brushed the dirt off of his clothes.

"Oh yes," Malon answered. "He and Mister Ingo are still sleeping. I was just doing the morning chores. We may have lost the ranch, but we're keeping busy."

"I'm sorry to hear about that."

"Oh, that's all right!" Malon's cheerfulness was overflowing. "Now that you all are back, I'm sure we'll be able to rebuild."

"Have you seen Link already?" Lydia asked her.

Malon's eyebrow raised steeply. "You mean all four of him?" she said with a giggle. "Yes, I did. Princess Zelda explained that one to me. That was definitely not what I expected." She reached up and started stroking Epona's neck. "So, you two are heading out today?"

"You knew about that?"

"How could I not?" Malon laughed. "Fairy boy and his twins have been completely twitchy all morning. Leaving them behind, huh?"

Lydia rolled her eyes. "We won't be gone long. Seriously."

"Well, you'd better head on down to the training fields and tell them that for what I'm sure will be the hundredth time."

The sorceress laughed. "Pretty much."

"I'll get back to my chores, then. See you soon." With a smile and a nod, Malon gently turned Epona and started leading her back to where the other horses were still grazing.

The siblings continued on through the field and came to another hill. Once they reached the top of it, they could see what was clearly the training fields beyond. All of the grass had been cleared away, and scattered all over it was all kinds of training equipment, mostly constructed from wood from the surrounding trees. They even had an obstacle course.

They spotted the four Links over by a long row of human-sized wooden training dummies. All of them had their swords out and were practicing. They stood and watched them for a moment as they all performed different sword swings and thrusts, and even were adding dexterous turns and kick moves to their technique.

Lydia smiled. It had been a long time since she had seen Link fight. It felt very nostalgic, and even after so many years of fighting by his side, she never ceased to be impressed by his skill.

Finally, they descended the hill and started toward the training area. They walked around the long way so that they would approach them from the front, where they would be easily seen. They knew that sneaking up on any of them from behind while they were in fighting mode was just asking for injury. Of course, sneaking up on Link was not easily done, so maybe it wouldn't have mattered.

"Morning, guys!" Lydia called when they got close. "Please tell me you got _some_ sleep."

Green lowered his sword and rubbed some soreness out of his arm. "As much as we could manage, I swear," he answered with an apologetic grin.

" _I_ sure as hell didn't sleep," Red grunted, still bouncing up and down in place, as if an opponent stood before him ready to strike. He never took his eyes off of the dummy. "I'm too wound up to sleep. I can't believe you two are leaving us here!" He raised the sword high and brought it down hard on the dummy with an animalistic growl. It snapped right in half under the force of the blow. The upper half of it was now face-down in the dirt.

"Oops," he groaned through his teeth.

"Hey, I don't like the fact that they're going out there without us, either," Blue said to him with a shrug. "But it doesn't make sense for all six of us to go. This way, they can stay in the air, and they'll be back in a few hours. It's really not a big deal."

"Whatever. I just want to hurry up and kill something."

"Are you heading out now, then?" Vio asked, examining some feature of his sword's blade.

"We're going to go through town on our way out and grab some food first," Lydia said. "After that we're going out."

Green stabbed his sword into the ground far enough that it would stand on its own and approached them. He shook Gordon's hand and clapped him on the shoulder. He turned to Lydia and said, "Be careful, okay? Don't be a hero."

She raised an eyebrow. "…Because that's _your_ job?"

"Exactly," he said, smiling from ear to ear.

A pair of arms playfully wrapped around her shoulders from behind. "Hurry back!" Blue's happy voice said in her ear, and he planted a quick kiss on her cheek before bounding back to where they had all been training. As he passed one of the training dummies, he spun around quickly and landed a really nasty-looking kick to the dummy's chest. The force of the blow caused the dummy to wobble back and forth so far that Lydia was surprised when it didn't snap in half like Red's target had. Blue's innocence and playful personality made it really easy to forget that he was just as formidable a fighter as the original Link was.

Link…

She hoped he would be back his old self soon.

At first, the thought surprised her. Link hadn't gone anywhere, and she knew that. He was still here with them. Four of him were here with them, in fact. It should have been the coolest thing that had ever happened.

But if she was completely honest with herself, she knew that none of these guys were Link. They were only part of him. They all acted more or less like him, fought like him, seemed to care about her like he did… But none of them were _really_ him.

And she missed him.

Her brother's voice cut into her thoughts. "Are you okay?"

Lydia almost jumped. "O-Oh, yeah, sorry. The brain train derailed for a minute there."

"Let's get going. They're just going to get more and more fidgety the longer we stand here. Let's go so we can come back." He turned and started back toward town.

She took one last glance at them. Green and Vio had gone back to their sword training. Blue stood triumphantly before the dummy he had kicked, and then started trying other hand-to-hand moves on it. Red was crouched over the dummy he had broken, mumbling something about having to fix it.

Sure, none of these guys were really the true Link… but they would be great company for now. She smiled, then turned to follow her brother back to town.

About half an hour later, the Links spotted Princess Zelda approaching the training fields. They all relaxed their stances and sheathed their swords.

"Not bad for a morning's work," Red said, mostly to himself, as he flexed the muscles in his arms.

Zelda was not dressed in her normal royal gown today. She was dressed in lightweight battle armor made mostly of leather, and her hair was tied back in a low ponytail. She had a thin sword strapped to her back, and a dagger strapped to each thigh. The hilt of her sword looked to be made of pearl.

Vio pointed at it. "Say… isn't that…?"

"No way," Blue said, astonished.

Zelda smiled. "Yes, Lydia's old sword. I was on my way to the Gerudo Desert a couple of years ago and I found it half-buried in the dirt. Rather, I tripped over it and went flying." She laughed as she recalled the memory. "I've been training with it ever since. I forgot to show it to her before she and Gordon left this morning."

The four warriors all looked at each other as they all remembered the scene at the same time. When Ganondorf had control over Lydia's mind, she had attacked them with that sword in the valley between Gerudo Fortress and Hyrule Field. She must have dropped it there.

"Are they gone, then?" Green asked.

"Yes, some people in town told me that they left a little while ago, after gathering a few light supplies from the shops. I didn't see them, myself. I guess they were in a hurry." She turned her attention away from town and back to them. "So, I suppose you have some free time while you wait for them. I was hoping maybe you could teach me a few sword moves before everyone comes down here for the morning drills."

Red stepped forward, looking smug. "Leave this to me, gentlemen." He drew his sword again, as Zelda drew hers. Red playfully tapped his blade against the blade of the other sword.

Taking advantage of his apparent underestimation of her newly acquired skill, Zelda moved the sword quickly in a way that caught Red off-guard, and he quickly readjusted his stance and parried the move with his own blade.

"Where did you learn that?" he asked.

The princess smirked back at him. "Sheik isn't the only one that's been busy."

"Very nice," he half-growled through a mischievous grin. "Let's see what else you can do."

Their sparring match continued for a while this way. They exchanged sword blows over and over again. Red would occasionally pause to show her a way to improve her footwork, or recommend approaching the opponent a different way, but overall Zelda was holding her own very well. Occasionally one of the three spectators would shout encouragement, a technique suggestion, or the fact that he was making a bet against Red.

As Red suggested that they try a little hand-to-hand combat, since you never knew when you were going to be disarmed, a tiny but forceful voice cut the training short.

"Your Highness! Your Highness!"

Navi was shooting across the meadow toward them, and she wasn't alone. She was accompanied by two other fairies.

"Your Highness!" Navi shouted again. "They've found another one!"

"Another piece of the Ocarina of Time?" Red asked forcefully, sheathing his sword again."

"Where?" Zelda asked.

"At the peak of Death Mountain," one of Navi's friends answered. "Not in the mountain's caverns, but up at the very top peak. There's a small plateau up there."

"And it's guarded?"

"Yes, your Highness. The guardian didn't reveal itself to us, but we could sense its presence."

Red looked in the general direction where he remembered the exit to the forest to be, and took a step in that direction.

"Forget it," Vio's voice came from behind him. "They would have taken to the air the second they got out of the forest. We'll never catch them."

"We can't wait for them to return," Green added, his arms crossed in thought. "We can't let Ganondorf get to it first."

"Maybe he doesn't know it's there," Blue suggested. "Wouldn't he have gotten it already?"

"We can't take that risk. The four of us are going to have to go there by ourselves."

"Then, I'll go too," Zelda offered.

Red turned to face her. "With all due respect, princess, absolutely not. You've already risked yourself several times to get back the pieces we have. It's up to us now."

"He's right, you know," Blue said with a friendly smile. "You're needed here. You can count on us."

Sighing lightly, Zelda surrendered. "…All right. I'll wait here for Lydia and Gordon to return. I'll send them right after you."

Navi's other friend spoke up for the first time. "We can show you a short cut through the forest that leads to Kakariko Village!" he said.

"I didn't know there _was_ such a shortcut," Vio said with a raised eyebrow.

"There wasn't," Zelda answered, tilting her head toward him. "The landscape has changed quite a bit in some places."

"I see."

"Well, let's not waste time standing here flapping our jaws," Red said forcefully, already walking back toward town. He gestured toward the little fairy with the knowledge of the shortcut, beckoning him to follow.

As the others followed, Zelda silently said a prayer for their safety, then turned back toward the training fields to prepare them for the morning drills.

* * *

Vaati stopped dead in his tracks. The ruins of a town stretched out around him, and the entire central plaza that he found himself in was littered by some kind of creature. They were human-like, but had the appearance of being dead and half-decomposed. They barely moved. They simply stood where they were, swaying back and forth ever so slightly.

The young man swallowed hard, trying to get his stomach to stop churning. He knew nothing of these creatures, but one probably didn't have to know much about them to know they were dangerous. Although, they seemed oddly familiar to something he had read about a long time ago…

Pushing the thought aside for now, his eyes scanned the plaza. Remaining as still as the creatures that surrounded him, he carefully planned a route between them that would leave a comfortable distance between them and him. It would involve a little back-and-forth, and if he tripped, his day would go from bad to worse in a hurry. But if he was careful…

Keeping his eyes on the route he had planned out, he broke into a run. He went straight ahead at first, then planted his foot and jumped several feet to the right, ran a little more, then jumped to the left, and so on. At one point, he accidentally stepped what he thought to be too close to one of the creatures, but thankfully, it had its back turned and didn't seem to notice him.

When he finally broke through the far side of the plaza, he didn't stop running. Whatever it was in this direction that had tempted him this far north, it was very close. He was running through a valley with tall walls. He could feel a rush of heat coming from ahead.

When he rounded a corner, the valley suddenly opened up. Before him stood a tall, forbidding castle keep. The keep was built upon a thick rock slab that floated above a pool of lava in a pit below. Magic was at work, no doubt. Was that what he had felt?

 _What is this place?,_ he wondered.

Vaati started to walk slowly forward, taking a path to his right that wound around the side of the lava pit. As he got closer to the keep, the entrance appeared before him. Getting to it would require leaping an inhuman distance over the pool of lava, but with the aid of his magic, he could make it.

That is, if there weren't a very large man blocking his way.

A dark-skinned, red haired man dressed in armor stood on the path, on Vaati's side of the lava pit, with his arms crossed. He stood there, staring at Vaati, as if he were accessing him somehow. This man absolutely reeked of dark magic. This man was what had lured him here.

Vaati's heart leapt into his throat and beat ferociously there. That magic! This feeling! He finally recognized it! The rest of his lost memories came flooding back in an instant.

He had never seen him in a human form before, but it was definitely him! Vaati's lips curled over his teeth as he seethed with the anger that welled up when he realized who was standing before him.

The man opened his mouth to speak, but Vaati cut him short.

" _You!_ " He shrieked angrily.

Ganondorf closed his mouth again and raised one of his thick, red eyebrows as the long-haired boy in front of him continued to yell.

"How _dare_ you show yourself in front of me, Ganon!" he growled. "You used me for your own ends and then discarded me like trash when I was no longer _useful_! You _used_ me, and I got sealed away because of you!"

Finally, Ganondorf spoke. There was a dark laugh in his voice. "Kid, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

"Don't give me that!" Vaati yelled back. With an animalistic roar, he charged straight at Ganondorf, his hands crackling with magic as he brought his power to bear.

A hint of surprise flashed across Ganondorf's face, then was gone just as quickly. The next couple of seconds seemed to happen in slow motion. The Evil King spun to the side, his dark cape billowing dramatically behind him. He caught the young boy by the throat, and in an impressive feat of magically-aided strength, swung him into the air and slammed him down into the dirt. He lay stunned on his back, and the magic in his hands slowly faded away. Not ready to let his guard down, Ganondorf kept him pinned on the ground with the grip he still had on his neck.

Vaati opened his eyes as panicked thoughts crossed his mind. As Ganon knelt over him, his body radiated much more magical power than he remembered him ever having. His mind raced. _Where is this power coming from?!_

"Like I said," Ganondorf growled through his teeth. "I have no idea who you are or what you're talking about." His lips pulled upward and he started grinning down at his helpless opponent. If he didn't know this kid… maybe no one else did, either. Maybe, with some convincing, he could get close to a certain someone without being suspected of anything…

Maybe he could be the weapon he needed to get the upper hand in this whole mess.

"I've never seen you before, but I like the feel of your power. You have potential, kid. Maybe we can help each other."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Vaati demanded, squirming futilely under Ganondorf's grip.

"You seem to have some kind of a grudge against me for some reason. Maybe you'd give that up if I helped you improve your skill? Maybe gave you some extra power? Hmm?

"Tch! It's not like you to help others. And what, pray tell, would you want in exchange for that?"

"I need somebody killed."

"Hah! Somebody you can't kill yourself? I thought such a person didn't exist!"

Ganondorf angrily tightened his grip on the boy's throat, then took a breath and loosened it up again. "It's a person that will be well protected. I can't get close enough without meeting a lot of resistance. It has to be quick. It needs to be done by somebody that can get close without raising the alarms, so to say."

Vaati squirmed again. "So… I kill somebody that's a thorn in your side, and you grant me all kinds of power?"

"I see we have an understanding."

The boy suddenly started to laugh mockingly. "Are you kidding?! Any enemy of yours is a friend of mine! You can _forget_ it, Ganon! I will _not_ let you use me again!"

Ganondorf's eyes narrowed into dark slits, and he growled back, "Well, you see, with power like yours, I can't allow you to be a friend to my enemy, as you say. I'm outnumbered as it is. If you aren't going to help me—" His big arm slowly raised up, swirling with dark magic, prepared to strike. "—then I'm just going to have to kill you. Nothing personal."

So quickly that the move could barely be seen with an unaided eye, Vaati's arm suddenly rose and he clawed his magic-coated fingers across Ganondorf's unprotected face, cutting deep. Blood sprayed everywhere as Ganondorf leaned back, howling in angry pain, releasing his grip in Vaati's throat. The boy squirmed out from under the big man, scrambled to his feet, and took off in the direction from which he had come. He had no idea where he was expecting to go, only that he had to run. Mindlessly, his heart racing, he sprinted back toward the market that was littered with zombie creatures.

Somehow managing to ignore his mangled face, Ganondorf was right behind him, throwing everything he had at him. Magic exploded into the walls on both sides, sending large bits of debris flying everywhere. He dodged the flying rocks to the best of his ability, but a particularly large rock came at him from a blind spot and slammed into his left shoulder. Vaati screamed as pain seared through him, but was too filled with adrenaline to stop running. He never broke his stride as he dashed back into the town plaza.

As he grew tired and was being increasingly blinded by the pain in his shoulder, he had a moment of carelessness, and got a little too close to one of the zombies. Suddenly, all his muscles seized up and he stopped dead in his tracks. To his horror, the zombie leapt up onto his back and bit hard into his good arm.

Not wanting to die today, Vaati allowed his magic to momentarily run wild, and it exploded from him, sending the zombie flying. It slammed into the wall of an abandoned building and slumped to the ground.

Taking just a second to regain control of his magic, because he knew that was all he had before Ganondorf would catch up to him, Vaati continued his flight out of the plaza and back toward the vast field it had taken him all night to cross. He still had no idea where he was going to go. Since Ganon was here, this had to be Hyrule, but he didn't recognize anything. What was going on?!

He was almost back to the field now… He just had to jump over the moat.

As he prepared to make the leap, Ganondorf's magic slammed into his back, and he was sent flying. He disappeared into the river below.

Ganondorf stood at the edge of the moat, which was actually a shallow part of the Zora River that flowed past Hyrule Market. These days, the current was much stronger, even here. The river had become a death trap, full of jagged rocks and other debris.

His chest heaved as he stared down into the water where the boy had disappeared. If he wasn't dead already, he would be once he got washed into the Gerudo Valley. Nobody could survive the waterfalls there.

He swore as he raised a hand and touched his bleeding face. He had underestimated that kid. It was a good thing he was gone now. If he really weren't willing to do what he asked of him, he could have been a real pain. He had enough stacked against him already, and didn't want to risk more problems being added to the equation.

"What a waste," he growled to himself.

With a grunt, he turned around and started back toward his keep. The only sound left in the area now was the rush of the dangerous river waters.

* * *

"Oooh, this feels fantastic!" Lydia yelled over the wind rushing past her ears. "Sure has been a while!"

She and Gordon were sailing high in the air over Hyrule Field. She had always enjoyed flying free like this, and hadn't been able to do this for a long time. This kind of thing just didn't happen back in their world, so she had always had to settle for using a car like everyone else. And even back when they did this kind of thing all the time, one of them would have been carrying Link, which slowed them down somewhat. Lydia was so enjoying the freedom that she spent the first several minutes of today's journey doing dives and loops. When she almost smacked right into a tree, she decided she was done goofing around.

There was no way to go through all of Hyrule with a fine-tooth comb, at least not from the air like this. This was a general looking-around mission, to see if, by some unlikely miracle, they could catch some sort of sign of an Ocarina piece. The plan was for them to fly across Hyrule Field from north to south, then turn west at whatever remained of Lake Hylia, and more or less follow the river up and around the rest of the kingdom before ending up back at the forest. Once they got back there, they'd have to land and go through the forest on foot. They'd never find the entrance to the hideaway from the air.

The remains of Lon-Lon Ranch were now visible below them. The farmhouse was reduced to rubble, and the walls had mostly collapsed. They swallowed their silent rage and refocused their attention toward the south. Everyone who had occupied that ranch was safe, they reminded themselves.

They flew in silence, save for Lydia's soft humming to herself. It was pretty interesting getting a birds-eye view of Hyrule Field. From up here they could see just how different it really looked now. There were all sorts of new valleys and hills. They were starting to fly close to the only other landmark they could easily pick out – Lydia's Dragon Slave crater from so many years ago. It was partially eroded, but was pretty much still a huge hole in the ground.

Lydia felt a sudden jolt of a familiar energy shoot through her body and she stopped in midair. Gordon flew right past her, not expecting the sudden stop.

"What's going on?" he asked when he got back to where she had stopped and was now hovering motionless.

"It… It may be crazy, but I think I can feel it."

"Really?!"

"Yeah, I can't really explain it. It's almost like it's calling to me."

"Well, like you said before, you'd be the one it would call to. It would be calling Maya, anyway, and you're the closest we have. Where?"

Lydia pointed down toward the huge crater that spread out on the ground below them. "I think it's down there somewhere."

"Down in the crater? Are you sure? That's so… so _obvious_ and out in the open."

His sister just shrugged.

"Well," he said, "I'm not too sure about us doing this by ourselves, but if you're right, we can't ignore it. Let's check it out."

They landed at the edge of the large crater. The loose dirt shifted under their feet as they deactivated their flight spells and their weight settled on it. Lydia tried to concentrate on what she was feeling. Down in the crater, certainly… but where, exactly?

"Hm, you're right," her brother said. "I wouldn't have noticed it from the air, but now that we're on the ground, I can feel something. Not the Ocarina of Time, but there's definitely something here."

"I felt the Ocarina itself," Lydia said.

"So… the guardian?"

"Probably…"

They looked at each other. Both had uncertainly in their eyes. Lydia broke the silence and said, "Come on. We can do this."

Without further words, they started carefully down into the crater. The dirt kept giving way beneath their feet, and they lost their balance several times, until finally the ground leveled out. Not sure where exactly to go, they started to walk toward the center. It was a long walk. The Dragon Slave, the most powerful black magic spell at their disposal, had quite a range of destruction.

As they approached the center, Lydia felt the jolt of energy again and stopped. It was stronger this time. They were close.

There was a rumbling sound coming from somewhere. They looked around them, trying to find the source of the sound, but all they saw was more dirt. The ground underneath them started to shake.

"Move!" Gordon screamed.

Both sorcerers took magically-aided leaps dozens of feet backward and the ground where they had been standing cracked open. The crack spread and the surrounding dirt fell away. A mass of dirt started to rise from the center of the crater. Dirt and sand surrounding the area started to move toward the center, as if pulled by a magnet, and added to the mound in the center until it was over fifty feet tall.

Then the mound of dirt started to take shape. Loose dirt fell all around them like rain as teeth and claws started to form. A large snout poked out from the pile, closely followed by big, menacing eyes that glowed red. It stretched its long neck up toward the sky. On the ground, masses of sand came together to form a long, snaking tail.

A gigantic sand dragon now stood before them, reared up on its hind legs. The wings that jutted out from its back stretched to their full span. It inhaled sharply and let out a roar so forceful that the sorcerers had to brace themselves to keep from being blown over.

"Oh, geez," Lydia snarled through her clenched teeth. "I know I said I wanted to let loose on something, but this is ridiculous!"

They took cautious steps back as the dragon's head lowered so it could look at them. It started to take slow steps toward them. Each step caused the ground to rumble, and the sound of it echoed off of the nearby trees.

The sorcerers continued their slow retreat. "What do you think?" Gordon asked. "Ice magic? It might break him apart."

"U-Um…" Lydia stammered.

"Here it comes!"

The dragon suddenly picked up speed and was almost on top of them in an instant. Neither sorcerer was quick enough to act to save themselves from the sudden attack. With a swing of the dragon's tail, Gordon was knocked clear. The dragon used its clawed hand to sweep Lydia's legs out from under her. She hit the ground so hard that the air rushed out of her lungs. She struggled to stand, gasping for air.

The same clawed hand pushed her back into the dirt. It opened its mouth, showing dozens of jagged teeth. From the corner of her eye, she saw her brother sprinting back onto the scene, some kind of magic already gathered in his right hand.

Suddenly, the dragon stopped. It just stood where it was, keeping Lydia pinned to the ground with one hand, and stared at her. She noticed something in its eyes now. It looked confused.

On a hunch, Lydia raised her hand in a gesture to her brother, telling him to stop.

He skidded to a stop and yelled, "What?! Why?!"

"J-Just wait a second!" she hollered back. "Something's… something's strange here!"

A few very, very tense seconds went by. That dragon could easily squish her with the hand it was using to hold her in place, but it didn't. It merely held her there while it continued to stare. The eyes moved very slightly as it looked her up and down. Over to the side, Gordon looked twitchy, waiting for _any_ excuse to strike.

Finally, the dragon lifted its massive clawed hand, releasing her from its grip. It reared up and sat on its haunches, and drew its tail back close to its body. It lowered its head submissively.

Then it spoke.

"Mistress."

Gordon's mouth dropped open, and the magic he was holding slowly faded away.

Shakily, Lydia slowly stood up and looked the large dragon in the eye. _Holy…,_ she thought. _It thinks I'm Maya!_

She stood there like a statue for a moment, then remembered that she probably should say something to it, but she had no idea what she was supposed to say to a dragon!

"W-What are you doing here?" she finally asked it.

The dragon's deep voice replied, "Guarding the artifact, as you ordered, Mistress."

 _The Ocarina of Time piece!_ "U-um, what is your name?"

"I am afraid your tongue would be unable to pronounce my name, Mistress. My apologies."

"Okay… Can I call you Goldie?" She thought of that because the dense sand his body seemed to be made of took on a golden color in the dull sunlight.

"As you wish, Mistress," Goldie replied.

Lydia's heart fluttered with excitement. She had a dragon at her command. This was what everybody wished for when they were kids! Heck, forget that – even as an adult, this was the coolest thing that had ever happened.

"Goldie, do you have the artifact with you?"

The dragon's head lowered and raised in a nod. "Yes, Mistress. I have protected it for four of your years."

Lydia smiled triumphantly. "You have done very well. I am very pleased. I'll take care of it from now on."

"I understand, Mistress." Goldie shifted his weight slightly, and stretched his long neck down so that his enormous head was so low that Lydia could have reached out and touched his nose.

A small ball of light appeared out of thin air in front of Goldie's outstretched nose. It glowed brilliantly for a moment. When it dimmed and disappeared, Lydia heard something small land in the dirt at her feet.

At first, she couldn't see it. Goldie was so huge that he cast a shadow for many paces in all directions. When he finally raised his head again and let some of the dull morning sunlight hit the ground, she saw a piece of blue clay at her feet.

With a wide smile on her face, she leaned down to pick up the piece of the Ocarina of Time that Goldie had been the guardian for.

She looked up at the dragon again. He was so tall that she had to crane her neck way back to look him in the face. "Thank you. Good job."

"I live to serve you, Mistress. I will go now and await your next orders."

Lydia's eyebrows came together in confusion. "M-My next orders?"

Goldie's large wings stretched out and started to beat hard. Sand flew in all directions and Lydia had to shield her face to keep it from getting in her eyes. With a leap that shook the ground again, Goldie shot straight up into the air. With grace that was completely unbelievable for a creature of his size, he continued higher and higher until he disappeared up into the dark clouds.

The sorceress stood where she was, staring at the sky with her mouth open. When someone poked her, she jumped almost a foot in the air. She had forgotten that she wasn't alone.

"Mistress?!" Gordon repeated in disbelief.

"What can I say?" Lydia laughed. "I guess he thought I was Maya… I just ran with it."

Her brother bent over with his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. "Woman, you almost gave me a heart attack!"

The sorceress laughed again. " _You_ almost had a heart attack?! How on earth did Maya get _dragon_ minions?!" She looked at the piece of the Ocarina she held and added, "Though, I sure am glad she did!"

"So these guardians are actually magical creatures that Maya had command over?" Gordon wondered aloud. "Maya wasn't here to tell them to guard those pieces, so those orders must have already been in place just in case the Ocarina was broken." He looked off into the distance, and added, "So, if Zelda has three pieces and Ganondorf has one, and your new dragon friend gave his up willingly, that means there's only one left. Hopefully we'll get as lucky with that one as we did with Goldie."

After smiling at it one more time, Lydia carefully tucked Goldie's piece of the Ocarina of Time into the pocket of her jeans. "I hope so. A full fight with a creature like that would be nasty. Where are we going next?"

Her brother turned to look south. "Well, we were on our way to the lake, and then we were going to work our way up the river. I say we still do that."

"Yeah. Maybe we'll have another stroke of absurd, incredibly unlikely luck like this. Wouldn't it be crazy if we came back with both of the missing pieces?"

Gordon smiled and said, "So much for 'just looking around'."

With quick words of magic, both sorcerers kicked up the dirt around them as they took to the air again, and started flying due south toward Lake Hylia.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The four identical warriors had been following Navi and her two friends due north through dense forest for almost an hour now. The trees and brush were so thick all through here, it was clear this wasn't a place that had ever been inhabited. Every step was made with great caution, carefully placing their feet in the tiny spaces between vines and tree roots. A misstep here could mean dealing with a broken ankle.

"Can we really get to Kakariko this way?" Vio asked, shoving a tree branch out of his face. "I know the landscape is supposed to have changed, but isn't southern Kakariko protected by high walls?"

"Yes, that is still mostly true," Navi replied, circling his head. "but a particularly nasty earthquake opened a big enough gash in the wall of the graveyard for you to get through."

Red pushed a branch out of his path, not realizing that this particular branch was keeping another one at bay. Now freed, the second branch whipped out and smacked him right in the head. After some angry cursing, he growled, "I think now I would have preferred to just go out in the open. This is too frustrating to be worth the trouble!"

Green sniffed at the air. "I think we're almost there. The scent of the forest is getting thinner."

"I'll check," Blue offered. He quickly scanned the surrounding trees. One nearby had a lot of low branches. Blue got a running start and ran a few steps up the trunk, and managed to grab the lowest one. He swung up to the next one, and got a foothold. The others watched as he quickly climbed almost all the way to the top.

Turning his gaze north, he called down, "I can see the graveyard from here!"

Nodding, Green said, "All right, good. We'll cut through the village and get up the mountain. Hopefully we won't run into anything before we get to the top."

"Probably not," Navi advised. "It's pretty deserted."

Blue was already back in the low branches. He jumped for the lowest one, grabbing it in midair, and swung into a little flip before landing softly on the ground.

"Show off," Red muttered.

After a few more minutes of cutting through the thick forest, a stony wall appeared before them, stretching for as far as they could see in either direction. This was part of the wall that protected Kakariko and the graveyard. And just as Navi had said, part of the wall directly in front of them had crumbled away. There was a hole wide enough for them to fit through one at a time. They proceeded single-file.

They found themselves now in the Kakariko Graveyard. This place used to be tended by a lone grave keeper, but now only his ghost inhabited this place. They wondered if he was still here somewhere, keeping the souls of Kakariko's dead company.

The graveyard didn't really look any different. It had been a creepy place even before Hyrule had changed like this. Crows circled overhead, their calls the only sound in this place.

They wasted no time and immediately started heading west and down a pathway that they remembered would open into eastern Kakariko Village.

The village itself clearly didn't fare as well as the graveyard had. This place had once been a bustling town with many homes, shops, and people. Now it was a ghost town. Most of the buildings had burned to the ground, leaving nothing but ash and bits of iron supports. As they walked through town, they noticed that the short stone walls of the well had collapsed, leaving just the gaping hole. They were curious about what the bottom of the well was like these days, but it was very fleeting. All it took was a quick recollection of their memories of that place to get them to move on.

They paused as the passed by one house in particular. Three of the four walls were standing, and the windows of the remaining walls had been busted out. This was the house where they had stayed with Lydia and Gordon during their adventures. Glancing through the open wall, they could see that most of the furniture had been broken. Only one of the three beds had survived intact, but it was too dirty to look at all inviting.

Even in its rotten state, this house still served as a reminder of better times.

After exchanging nostalgic looks with each other, they moved on again toward the north of the village. The barrier wall opened here and led to the pathway that would take them up Death Mountain. They had been to this mountain many times before, but in this new Hyrule, going anywhere felt like going for the first time. Everything was so different now.

They took the path up in silence, passing a few landmarks they remembered, which reassured them that this was indeed the same place, even if it looked a little different now. The entrance to Dodongo's Cavern still stood like a monster's gaping mouth. What kind of creatures occupied that place now? Not wanting to find out, the group continued on.

After turning a couple of corners in the path, they passed the entrance to the Goron's city, which of course was deserted now. The Gorons were all safe back in the forest.

Green finally broke the silence, asking the fairies, "You said the piece of the Ocarina of Time is all the way up at the peak?"

"Yes, that's right," one of Navi's friends answered.

A rumbling sound came from somewhere deep in the mountain, and the ground beneath their feet started to shake violently. All four struggled to keep their balance, clinging to each other or to a nearby rock wall for support. After about thirty seconds of shaking, the mountain went silent again and the ground stood still.

Pensively straightening his posture, Vio observed, "Looks like the volcano is still as active as ever."

"I remember when Volvagia was here," Blue said, "it was going crazy like that all the time. But I suppose even with Volvagia gone now, a volcano is still a volcano."

Green ran his fingers through his hair. "I know it doesn't need to be said, but let's be careful."

"Please," one of the fairies said, starting to fly along the path again, "this way."

They continued to follow the fairies along the rocky path, eyes darting back and forth, just waiting for something to jump out that them. They unconsciously started to breathe harder as the air got thinner the higher they went.

The path eventually opened up into a small valley that hit a dead end. The wall at the dead end was not smooth rock, rather, it was littered with holes close enough together that they could be used as hand and foot holds.

"It looks like we can climb that," Vio said.

They all looked down the length of the little valley that led to the climbing wall. It wasn't a long walk to get through it, maybe fifty yards or so. The walls on the sides of it were much higher than along the path they had taken all the way up here. It was very odd-looking. Vio wondered out loud if maybe it had been carved out of the mountainside by years of volcanic eruption.

"We'll wait for you here," Navi said. "The path is clear from here."

Green started forward first and the others were quick to follow.

Nothing happened at first. They were able to walk about halfway through the valley without incident. Then, the mountain rumbled and the ground began to shake again. As before, they worked to keep their balance, but something was different this time. The air grew hot suddenly…

All four of them looked up at the same time, in time to see dozens of very hot-looking magma rocks tumbling down the mountainside from the peak, right toward them.

They were right in the middle of the length of the valley with nowhere to take cover. It was a choice of either going forward or back and hoping they didn't get killed on the way there.

"Move!" Green yelled. He yanked his shield from his back, and holding it over his head, sprinted forward at full speed for the end of the valley. Following his example, the other three did the same.

The rocks started hitting the ground all around them. The red glow from the rocks gave the entire valley the look of being red-hot. They dodged around rocks that had already hit the ground, the evasive action not slowing them down the slightest bit. A particularly large rock landed on the shield that Vio held over his head, and the weight of it caused him to stumble, but he recovered quickly and continued on.

After what seemed like a heart-pounding eternity, all four of them reached the climbing wall, spinning around and pressing their backs to it. They stayed glued there as close to the wall as possible, watching the valley they had just passed through continue to get bombarded by the hot rocks.

Finally the rumbling inside the mountain gradually lessened its intensity, until stopping completely. Even after the eruption was over, an additional rock or two tumbled down into the valley every few seconds.

Everyone stood as still as statues until no rocks rolled down from the peaks for a solid minute. Red finally peeled himself from the wall.

"That was fun," he said matter-of-factly. The others couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. When it came to things like this, Red was the type that might actually enjoy the challenge.

Blue swallowed, and detached himself from the wall as well. "Since we're still alive," he said, "I guess we can keep going."

Still filled with adrenaline from that run for their lives in addition to their natural dexterity, they scaled the wall quite effortlessly. At the top, the ground flattened out completely. Instead of Death Mountain coming to a single point at the top, it looked as if somebody had taken a knife and cut part of the peak off, leaving a flat plateau behind.

Green absently tapped the toe of his boot on the ground as he looked around. There was nothing up here but the four of them and a lot of dirt. There was no sign of life anywhere. No birds, no insects… and certainly nothing that looked like a monster guardian.

Off to his side, he heard Red sigh angrily. "We better not have wasted our time. Damn fairies."

"But they seemed so sure," Blue said. "There's _got_ to be something up here."

"I don't think they would have been mistaken about something like this," Vio added in agreement. "Maybe if we—"

The ground rumbled again, but not from within the mountain. Something would rumble, then stop. And then rumble, and stop again. It sounded almost as if something was climbing up the far side of the mountain.

A gigantic, clawed hand appeared over the horizon of the far edge of the plateau and slammed into the ground, claws digging far into the dirt. Then came another hand just like it. With a growling sound, a dragon's head appeared, attached to a long neck. It was climbing up the mountain on all fours, with the wings on its back spread out for balance.

For a moment, it clung there on the edge, staring them down. The four warriors stood together and unsheathed their swords as the dragon continued its climb, hauling its enormous body completely up onto the plateau. Now that they could see it in its entirety, they noticed how much it looked like Volvagia. It was shaped much the same way, but was somewhat smaller. It was clearly something different. Its body was a reddish brown color, like the walls they remembered from within Death Mountain. It looked almost as if his body was made up of the rock and clay from the mountain itself.

Once all the way up, it crouched there on the edge on all fours for a moment, as if accessing the threat of these opponents. With a loud grunt, it pushed up off of its front feet and reared up on its hind legs, then sat there and growled at them with its numerous teeth showing, as if it was inviting them to make the first move.

The four Links quickly scanned the area around them. They were all thinking the same thing – with this gigantic thing taking up so much space, there was not much room to move around up here anymore. There was no higher ground for them to take or anything. Fighting this thing was going to be like mice running around a dog's feet while the dog was standing inside of a box.

Blue readjusted his stance. "Now I wish we'd waited for the others."

"Don't be a wimp," Red growled at him.

"I'm not a wimp! It's just that—"

Tired of waiting, the dragon suddenly lunged at them. They had to scatter in all directions to avoid its open jaws. It planted its feet where they had been standing and swung its massive tail around in a circle that encompassed the entire plateau. They all tried to duck and avoid the swinging tail, but it caught Red square in the chest and sent him flying backward. He lost his grip on his sword and was too shocked from the blow to see which way it went. He hit the ground hard, and his momentum kept him going until he slid soundlessly off of the top of the climbing wall and started a stomach-twisting plummet toward the valley below.

With a jerk on his arm that almost dislocated his shoulder, his descent suddenly stopped. Trying to shake the stars away from in front of his eyes, he looked up and saw that Blue was leaning over the side of the cliff and had a solid grip on his wrist, his teeth clenched together tightly with the effort it was taking to keep him from falling. Somewhere back up on the plateau, he could hear Green or Vio – he couldn't tell which – whistling and yelling at the dragon, keeping its attention turned away from the cliff.

Teeth still clenched, Blue managed to smile. "Good save, huh?"

Despite everything, Red couldn't help but smile back. "I suppose so," he said.

"All right, hang on, I'm going to pull you up."

Red planted his feet on the cliff wall and pushed himself up as Blue pulled on his arm. He gripped the edge of the cliff with his free hand and pulled up on it until he rolled back onto the plateau.

The dragon had its back turned to them. Green and Vio were both dancing around in an effort to avoid its repeatedly stamping feet, swinging their swords at its legs whenever they could do so without getting stepped on.

As Red tested his weight on his legs to make sure they were still intact, Blue reappeared at his side holding the sword he had lost.

"Thanks," Red said as he took it back.

Blue had dumped his sword at the edge of the cliff in his haste to grab Red. He leaned over and picked it up. "Let's stay away from the cliff from now on, okay?"

"No kidding."

A green blur flew past the dragon's lowered head, and it reared back suddenly, its clawed hands clutching the slash wound on its face. Green landed gracefully, his sword still outstretched, and quickly ran over toward the cliff. Vio was taking advantage of the distraction and got past the struggling dragon to rejoin his allies.

"You all right, Red?" Green asked, not taking his eyes off the dragon.

"Almost had my arm yanked off," Red replied, "but I'll live."

"Let's keep our focus," Vio said, balancing his sword in his left hand. "We can do this. Let's just keep an eye on each other, okay? If we can't take it down directly, we'll just have to chip away at it bit by bit!"

The now very angry dragon finally let go of the wound on its face and whirled around to face them again. Its lips were curled back so far that every single one of its teeth were showing, all with massive amounts of saliva dripping from them. It sucked in a breath, then lowered its head and unleashed a powerful roar.

This time, they were the first to move. Moving shoulder-to-shoulder at top speed with their swords at the ready, they charged the dragon head-on. The dragon lowered its head toward the ground and opened its mouth to strike. At the last possible moment, the group split up and ran around its head. They rejoined under its neck in a two-by-two formation and repeatedly stabbed at the dragon's underbelly as they ran under it toward its tail.

Screaming in fury, the dragon leaned up and to the side, putting all of its weight on its right two legs, trying to reach them. It threw its head under its chest, its mouth open and snarling, but snapped its jaws on nothing but air. Too focused on the pain in its belly, the dragon didn't notice that its opponents had already moved past that and were running single-file up its winding tail.

The Links climbed up onto the dragon's back almost as easily as if they were just walking down a road. Green and Red ran forward toward the dragon's shoulders, while Blue and Vio took positions at its hips. Simultaneously, they stabbed the blades of their swords into the dragon's shoulder and hip joints.

The dragon shrieked and hit the ground, its legs now unable to support its weight. Its wings extended fully out to either side, and the warriors used them as bridges back to the ground.

Before the dragon could get strength back into its legs and lift itself from the ground, they ran around it, stabbing and slashing at critical points in its flesh. Their movements were nothing short of a dance. Though they were four separate people, they fought with one mind. One of them would think to slash at the dragon's eye, and someone else would do exactly that. One saw a good spot to attack from, and someone else went right to that spot. They moved in perfect, deadly sync with each other, and the dragon was completely overwhelmed.

The four of them suddenly gathered on both sides of the dragon's neck and slashed at it in a simultaneous strike. The creature, somehow finding new strength in its front legs, reared up, howling toward the sky. Its chest was now wide open. Charging forward, they put their blades together to form one large weapon, and plunged it deep into the dragon's heart.

The dragon's roar stopped suddenly. For a moment, it just stood where it was, with its head pointed up toward the sky.

The Links yanked their swords free and backed away. A gaping hole was left behind in the dragon's stony underside. As they watched, cracks started to spread from the hole. They spread across the entire underbelly, then continued down its legs and all the way to the tips of its nose and tail.

Tiny pieces started to fall away from the main body. When they hit the ground, they crumbled to dust like dried clay.

Like someone jostling a house of cards, the entire dragon suddenly broke apart all at once, and a blanket of dirt and clay fell all around them, kicking up a twenty-foot-high cloud of dust.

For a moment, all anyone could hear was the others coughing and choking on the dust. Vio was the first to stumble out of the cloud. Still coughing, he started shaking the dirt out of his clothes and hair.

"Argh!" Red growled as he reappeared. He had one hand up to his face. "It's in my eye! I've got dead dragon in my eye! Damn it!"

Waving his hand in front of his face, Green called out, "Everybody okay?"

The dust cloud finally began to settle and the air started to clear. Blue was crouched down on the ground by where the dragon had crumbled, looking intently at the dirt below him.

Vio approached him from behind. "What's wrong?"

Blue twisted around to look at his companion, and had a triumphant smile on his face. "Look at this." He held up his hand. Between his index finger and his thumb he held a piece of blue clay.

Smiling from ear-to-ear, Vio took the piece of the Ocarina of time from him and examined it, then held it out for the other two to see. "Success, gentlemen."

"Hey, all right," Red said cheerfully, still rubbing dirt out of his eye. "Wait until Lyd sees that. She'll be sorry she missed the fun."

Green stood silently for a moment, thinking hard. "Speaking of which," he said finally, "how did we do that?"

"I know what you mean," Vio said. "The coordination was so effortless once we were all focused."

Red started nodding thoughtfully. "It was like we'd practiced that for weeks. Not a single step or move was made that wasn't precise and on-target. Once we got into a rhythm, the thing didn't stand a chance."

"I almost felt sorry for it," Blue admitted.

"It's got to be this sword we found," Vio wondered aloud. "It split us apart, but it looks like our minds are still linked. Truly, the same warrior duplicated into four, with four times the lethal skill."

"…I guess Lyd was right about not splitting us up," Red said.

"I wonder though," Blue said. "If the four of us together are so lethal, why can't we just fight Ganondorf like this? Why wait?"

It was a good question, but Vio had an answer ready. "I had that thought, too, but remember, he has two Triforce pieces. This monster didn't even have _one._ To fight someone like Ganondorf, we need the Master Sword back. It's one of the only things that is truly a threat to him as he is now."

"…I guess you're right."

Green took the Ocarina of Time piece from Vio, looked at it for a moment, then tucked it safely into his tunic. "So we'll just have to keep doing what we're doing. The time to fight Ganondorf will come soon enough."

"Well, let's not keep standing around here," Vio said, turning toward the cliff. "Maybe Gordon and Lyd will be there when we get back."

He and Green walked toward the cliff. Blue started to follow them, but Red grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"What?" Blue asked.

Red looked uncomfortable. "Listen, I… I'm sorry I called you a wimp. I mean, you're kind of an idiot, but definitely not a wimp."

Blue stared at him for a moment, completely bewildered. Red had been on his case about one thing or another ever since they had been split up by the sword. They seemed to have completely opposite personalities and it ended up being a constant source of conflict between them, mostly in the form of Red making fun of him.

But maybe that was just the way he was, and it was only on the surface. Maybe his aggressiveness was just the only way he knew how to interact with others. Underneath it all… maybe Red didn't hate him after all.

Blue smiled his understanding and wrapped his arm around Red's shoulders in a brotherly way. "That's okay, pal. I understand."

With a grin, Red shrugged his arm off. "Okay, okay, let's not make this any weirder than it already is. Come on, they're leaving without us."

He jogged off to catch up with the others. Blue followed right behind him with a smile on his face that suggested he had found a new best friend.

* * *

 _Am… Am I alive?_

Vaati honestly wasn't sure if he was or not. He felt like he was floating in a dark space somewhere. His head was still spinning. He was fairly sure he still had a body, but he couldn't feel much of it. He tried to force himself back into the conscious world.

When he wasn't able to really come around completely, he settled for just reclaiming the feeling in his body first. After several minutes, he started to find his legs again. He couldn't move them yet, but he could feel them down there. They felt like they weren't touching the ground, as if they were suspended in something. When he found that he still had an upper body as well, he realized that it didn't feel like his legs did. It was as if his legs were floating in water, but the rest of him was up on solid ground.

 _That's right_ , he remembered. _I fell in the river. Am I ashore somewhere?_

Feeling in the rest of his body started to come back. Vaati clenched his teeth and hissed from the pain he could now feel again. His left shoulder felt like it was torn from its socket, and he couldn't feel the rest of that arm. Unfortunately, he could feel his entire right arm perfectly fine, including the bite wound that zombie thing had inflicted there, which was burning hot.

He could feel his face again. His cheek was pressed into wet dirt.

Except for his destroyed left arm, he could feel everything now. His entire body felt broken. His soaking wet clothes clung to him, and that made him very cold.

He still hadn't opened his eyes. He lay there in the darkness behind his eyelids, in quite a bit of pain, and some part of him wished he could fall back into unconsciousness to escape it. He lay there for several quiet minutes trying to.

Maybe he would die here. After all he had been through, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. To just quietly slip away and finally be at peace… He was so tired…

He heard a voice then. A young woman's voice from somewhere in the sky above him. Who was she? Was she an angel? And angel that has come to take him away from here? She said something again, but she was too far away for him to make out her words.

Then he heard a second voice, a male's this time. Another angel? Did it take more than one angel to take someone to Heaven?

There was a thud in the dirt next to him, and Vaati had an awareness that he was no longer alone. Did angels usually hit the ground that hard when they landed? How strange.

One of the angel's slim hands gripped Vaati's body and rolled him onto his back. In doing so, pressure was put on Vaati's injured left arm. A white-hot jolt of pain surged through his entire body, and he couldn't keep himself from crying out.

"Oh, God!" It was the female angel, clearly startled. "What did I do?!"

The male spoke then. "Don't touch that arm. His shoulder is dislocated. See?"

"Ouch," the first one groaned. "And look at the other one. Something bit him. Ugh, it looks infected…"

One of them touched Vaati's forehead. "He's running a fever, too," the male angel informed the other.

"I'm not surprised. He's soaking wet, and it's not exactly warm out here. Not to mention the injuries. How on earth did he get like this?"

"I don't know, but he won't last long here like this. Let's get him out of the wind."

Vaati felt two pairs of hands wedge themselves under his body and start to lift him off of the cold ground. Pain from his arm shot through his body once again, and he again yelled from the intense pain.

"Sorry, sorry!" the female angel said quickly.

"Let's use that weird professor's old building."

Vaati must have fallen unconscious again, because he lost a little time after that. He was indoors now. Carefully, he opened his eyes just a bit. It was dark in here, save for a little fire someone had built. The warmth he felt from it was so soothing.

There were two people hovering over him. They both had brown hair and wore spectacles over their eyes. Vaati almost laughed. He had always assumed that angels would have perfect vision.

Slowly, he started to come to the realization that these weren't really angels. They looked just as human as he was. It meant that he was still alive.

He felt sudden pain again, and closed his eyes tightly against it.

He heard the girl's voice now. "Hey. Hey, can you hear me?"

Vaati forced one eye open, and managed to breathe, "Yes."

She smiled. Her long hair was flowing down so far that it was brushing on his chest as she leaned over him. "Good. No, no, don't move. Listen, your shoulder is dislocated. We can't heal it until we put it back into place." She put her teeth together and her face looked pained. "…I'm sorry, sweetie, it's gonna hurt."

Vaati was too lightheaded to really process what she was saying. He heard her words, but he didn't understand them.

It all became painfully clear when the boy with her placed his hands on Vaati's wrecked shoulder, counted to three, and shoved on it as hard as he could.

The pain was unbelievable. It surged through Vaati's body in white-hot waves, causing his muscles to seize up and his back to arch. His ears were hurting from the sound of somebody's blood-curdling shrieking. He then had a sick realization that this awful screaming was coming from _him_.

There was a loud snap in his shoulder, and everything went black again.

When Vaati started to come around again, he had no idea how much time had gone by. He waited to open his eyes, and instead spent a few minutes trying to get his bearings.

He could still smell the fire that had been built, so he must still be in the same place. His chest was bare – somebody had taken his shirt off. To his great relief, he could feel his left arm again. The maddening pain in his shoulder was now nothing but a dull ache. How was that possible? Had he been unconscious for weeks? It would take at least that long for something like that to heal this much, wouldn't it?

Someone touched his forehead, and after holding their hand there for a moment, said, "Feels like his fever has gone way down." It was the boy.

"Already? Wow, this guy's a real fighter. Even with our help, he should have been wrecked for days."

"I wonder what did this to him?"

 _What, indeed._ Vaati thought bitterly. He could remember vividly his flight for his life.

One thing in particular about the whole episode really bothered him. Why had Ganon acted like he didn't know him? It was true they didn't know each other well, and mostly had had a working relationship of convenience – for Ganon, anyway – but certainly after all that had happened, he would at least recognize him. On the contrary, he acted like he had never seen him before, and said as much.

What warped Hyrule was this? Mostly devoid of life, the landscape nearly destroyed, a Ganon in human form that didn't know him…

Vaati then sensed that he was alone in his immediate space. His rescuers had moved away from him at some point while he was lost in his thoughts. He knew he couldn't just lie here pretending to be unconscious forever. Cautiously, he opened his eyes.

As he had guessed, he hadn't been moved since the last waking moments he could remember. They were still in the little building they had all taken shelter in. He could hear the wind blowing outside, rattling the glass in the windows.

He could see the two people from before, as well. They were sitting not too far away, closer to the fire, whispering to each other. They were wearing clothes of strange colors and material. Judging by their short ears, it was clear they were not Hylian. The girl was holding what he recognized to be his shirt. She was examining a hole in one of the sleeves.

He shivered, remembering what had caused that tear in the shirt. It was where that zombie thing had bitten him. He raised that arm just high enough to look at the wound, and was astonished by what he saw. The bite wound was gone. New skin had grown over it, and all that was left to indicate that there had been an injury there was a pale half-moon scar in the shape of the creature's mouth. It looked how it might look after weeks of care and healing. He couldn't have really been here that long, could he?

Carefully testing his weight on his seemingly miraculously-mended shoulder, he started to push himself up off the floor. Hearing the movement, both of the others turned around to look. The girl jumped to her feet.

"Whoa, whoa, cowboy. Don't get up just yet."

Vaati froze in a half-sitting position. As he tried to figure out exactly _what_ she had just called him, since it was something he had never heard of before, she knelt down beside him and started to push him down again.

"No, I'm fine," Vaati protested.

She stopped and said, "Well, all right, if you're sure you're feeling up to it. Take it easy, though."

Unsure of what he was supposed to say to them first, Vaati looked up into the girl's green eyes. She gave him a very sweet, motherly smile that caught him off-guard.

"What's your name?" she asked him.

Vaati hesitated for a moment. Should he really trust these people? He had spent his whole life only trusting himself. Now, he was lost in a strange and hostile place.

He realized he had just answered his own question. Indeed, he was lost in a strange and hostile place, and he had no idea where to turn or what to do. If he was going to survive, he would need help. And these people _had_ come to his aid – somehow – when they could have just left him alone to die quietly.

Trusting someone had always been a leap of faith for a person like Vaati. He only hoped he could manage it.

"Vaati," he finally answered.

"Vaati, huh? That's cute." She smiled that sweet smile again. "My name's Lydia, and this is my little brother, Gordon."

The boy gave him a friendly wave from his place over by the fire.

So they were siblings. Looking again, Vaati could see it now. They did look very much alike. They were young, too. The boy called Gordon seemed to be about Vaati's age, and judging by the look of her, Lydia couldn't be too much older. Maybe a few years or so.

"I can't believe you're sitting up like this already," Lydia said with another smile. "I mean, the way we found you… yikes."

Vaati looked around the building they were in. "Where am I?"

"Not far from where we found you. This is a little place on the shore of Lake Hylia. A crotchety old professor used to do some kooky experiments here, but now it's empty. I'm glad it's more-or-less intact, though. It has kept the weather out nicely."

 _Lake Hylia_ , Vaati repeated in his head. The name tugged at his memory.

"So what happened?" Lydia asked with no small amount of eagerness in her voice.

"I… I fell in the river." Though he had decided he would accept their help, he wasn't sure about telling them every detail just yet. He glanced down at the pale scar on his arm. "How long have I been here?"

She looked back at her brother. He got up and looked out the window. "Well, as usual, I can't see the sun too well, but I think it's been about two hours."

"Two hours?!"

Lydia looked at Vaati, startled by his reaction. "…Um… maybe an hour and a half..."

Vaati looked again at the scar on his arm. "But… but how…?"

" _Oh._ Oh, I get it." Once again Lydia wore that wide smile. "That didn't exactly heal naturally."

Suddenly Vaati remembered something she had said when he had woken up the first time. He had been lightheaded and feverish, so he hadn't really processed it at the time, but he could still remember her words. She had said that his shoulder was dislocated and they couldn't heal it until it as put back into place. Heal it?

As if she was reading his thoughts, Lydia asked, "How's your shoulder feeling?"

Still lost in his thoughts, he distractedly answered back, "It aches a little."

Her lip stuck out in a pout. "Oh, really? I thought it would have been as good as new by now. Don't worry, the kid can take care of it."

She raised her arm to wave her brother over, but he was already on his way. He crouched down next to Vaati's sore shoulder and held his hand over it. He didn't touch it – rather, he just held his hand still about an inch away from it. Then, the palm of his hand and the air between it and Vaati's shoulder started to glow white.

Vaati stared in surprise as the lingering pain in his shoulder lessened with each passing second. It wasn't so much the fact that the boy had use of magic that amazed Vaati. He could use magic, too, after all, so it wasn't unthinkable. What amazed him was the _type_ of magic that he was using. It was healing magic. Nothing of the kind had been known of in Hyrule for many, many years…

That magic… Was it really…? It had to be. He had spent most of his childhood with his nose in books about Hyrule's history and lore. He had studied this lost magic a long time ago. The art was too far gone from Hyrule for him to learn it himself, but he found the nature of it fascinating and studied it anyway. It had a few different branches, one of them being a white magic healing type. And this was definitely it.

He felt his heart beat faster as he started to put the pieces together. He didn't think it was possible, but he had no other explanation. Somehow, the seal placed on him by the Four Sword had been broken. He had had the sensation of going through some kind of vortex, and had assumed until now that that's just how it felt to have the seal broken. But what if that wasn't the case? What if he hadn't just gone back to the world he'd been banished from, but —

Vaati's thoughts derailed momentarily because the sheer impossibility of it. It was like his brain didn't even want to entertain the idea and was trying to shut down to protect itself. He forced it to keep running.

What if he had somehow traveled to a different time? The different landscape, the fact that Ganon didn't know who he was _and_ was in a human form that Vaati thought had been corrupted away long ago… This boy was using a type of white magic that had been lost for centuries…

Was he in Hyrule's ancient past?

"There. How does it feel now?"

Still lost in his epiphany, Vaati didn't even hear Gordon's question.

"You okay?"

When Vaati's mind finally unfroze, he answered, "Y-Yes, sorry. I was lost in thought for a moment."

"How's your shoulder feeling now?"

Vaati gently worked his shoulder around like a windmill, testing it from various angles. The pain was completely gone. Not even the faintest of aches remained.

"It seems fine now," he finally answered. "Thank you."

Suddenly Vaati had another thought. These two were siblings. If one could do this magic, then…

"Can you do this, too?" he asked Lydia.

She grinned and answered, "Yeah, somewhat. That kind of thing isn't really my specialty, though. I'm more useful for making things explode. He's much better with healing than I am."

As he thought, she could use magic, too. And by "making things explode", Vaati could only assume she was referring to attack spells. So one used a lost form of white magic, and the other one used a lost form of black magic? What the scholars from his time would give to meet these two…

Lydia picked Vaati's shirt up off the floor and handed it over to him. "Here, now that you're all patched up, you can put this back on." Her face fell a little and she looked apologetic. "Sorry I couldn't fix the hole. Honestly, I even if I had sewing stuff, I'd probably just damage it further."

"No kidding," her brother laughed. "You'd probably even find a way to set it on fire."

Vaati snickered before he could catch himself. It felt strange to laugh. It wasn't something he did often.

The girl made a face at her brother, then turned her attention back to Vaati. "Say, that bite wound was pretty nasty. What chewed on you?"

"Actually, I'm not certain. It was like a… a dead person. It let loose this horrible shriek when I came too close, and the sound paralyzed me."

Lydia shuddered visibly. "Ew, a ReDead. I can't even tell you how much I _hate_ those things."

A ReDead. It was another name that rang a bell in Vaati's mind. He had read about it – it was a kind of monster that had been long extinct. If he still needed more evidence that he was in Hyrule's past, that was it.

"Hey, wait a minute," Gordon said. "A ReDead? As far as I know, those things only wander around in Northern Hyrule, like the Market. How far did you go after it bit you?"

"I didn't get far," Vaati replied. "I fell in the river right after that."

"Way up by the Market?" Lydia asked in amazement. "You mean you went all the way down the river from there, including through the waterfalls in Gerudo Valley, and into Lake Hylia, and survived it?!"

Vaati only shrugged.

The girl's wide grin reappeared and she clapped Vaati on the back. "You're pretty tough, huh?"

"I— Eh— How far does that mean I went?"

Gordon answered, "Well, the Market is in the north, and Lake Hylia is in the south. You pretty much traversed the entire kingdom."

"You're lucky to be alive, buddy," his sister added.

 _I wouldn't be if they hadn't found me_ , Vaati thought. He had spent his life as a loner and had never really been indebted to anyone before, but he couldn't escape the fact that he now owed these strangers his life. He would just have to swallow his pride.

The young man pulled his shirt back on, then reached back to pull all of his pale long hair up and out. His hair was tangled and still slightly damp. It felt cold against the back of his neck. He absently ran his fingers through it as he tried to come up with the right words to say.

"I may have been lucky to survive the trip down the river, as you say," he began finally. "But as I lay where I ended up, I could feel myself slowly losing my grip to this world. I surely would have died if you hadn't happened by. I owe you my life, and I intend to repay the debt somehow."

Lydia waved her hand dismissively. "It's okay, it's okay. It was the right thing to do. You don't owe us anything."

"Well, thank you just the same."

"Where are you from?" Gordon asked him. "The two of us have been around Hyrule several times, but I don't think we've ever seen you before."

"You must be from somewhere around here, right?" Lydia asked. She reached up and held the tip of Vaati's long ear between her thumb and index finger. "These look pretty Hylian to me."

Vaati was sure he couldn't tell them the truth. How could they believe it? Surely they would think him insane. Thinking quickly, he answered, "W-Well, not from _here_ , but I'm from a neighboring kingdom. I wanted to travel and to see the world." He rubbed the ReDead scar on his arm and added, "It looks like I wandered into something I shouldn't have."

"You don't have anywhere to go then?"

Of course, Vaati knew he didn't know where he was supposed to go. What chance did he have of getting back to his own time? He didn't even know how he got here in the first place. And he had had the good fortune of running into magic users. His best option at this point was to stay close to them and learn more about them and their magic. Maybe they would be able to find a way to help them, once he was comfortable with the idea of telling them the truth, of course.

He shook his head.

"Well, I couldn't live with myself if I just left you here to go your own way. It's true that your wounds have healed, but that kind of speed-healing takes its toll. You need to rest some more." She turned her attention to her brother and said, "Why don't we take him back with us?"

Gordon gave his sister a look that Vaati couldn't really interpret. "I'm not sure if that's a good idea to take him back there. We don't know-"

"I know what you're thinking, but we can't leave him here. Come on, you know I'm right."

The young boy sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I know. We don't have a choice." He turned his attention back to Vaati. "I mean no offense, really. We're just in a pretty dangerous situation, and-"

"And you barely know me," Vaati cut in, "and don't feel comfortable trusting me. I understand." He really did. "If I were you, I probably wouldn't trust me, either."

"Nonsense," Lydia said cheerfully. She gave her brother a reassuring glance. "It'll be fine. I can't explain it, but I have a good feeling about this guy. I think we can trust him."

Vaati felt his heart grow warm. What was with this girl? Based on what her brother said, they had to be careful of something that was threatening them. They probably had a safe place to go back to, and she was completely willing to trust a stranger and let him in, too.

He wondered if this was what it was like to have a friend. He couldn't help but almost roll his eyes at such a childish thought, but honestly, that was the first thing that came to mind.

Gordon smiled finally. "Well, you're usually right about things like that, I suppose. I'm probably just being overly paranoid. Though, in my defense, I think I have good reason." He clapped his hand on Vaati's back the same way his sister had before. "Sorry to hesitate like that. Welcome to the group."

"Thank you," he replied. "And, really, I understand. I've done nothing to make you trust me, but I hope to earn it in time."

Lydia jumped to her feet and walked over to the dusty window. Looking outside, she said, "It looks like things have died down out there. It should be okay for flight."

Vaati looked confused. "Flight?"

The girl turned around to face him and had a devilish grin on her face, like she knew of a joke Vaati wasn't clued into. "Like the kid said," she chuckled, "welcome to the group."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

 _In better times_ , Vaati thought with a little sadness, _the view from up here must have been spectacular._

He was doing something he would have never thought possible at that moment. He was soaring like a bird high above the trees. Well, he wasn't flying so much as being towed along for the ride, but it felt the same. His two new sorcerer friends were the ones doing the flying. They each had a tight grip on one of his arms, carrying him below them as they cut effortlessly through the air, heading what Vaati thought looked to be northeast. Maybe it was his imagination, but it seemed to Vaati that it was a very natural thing for them, as if they were used to carrying people around with them like this.

The initial takeoff had scared Vaati half to death. Though he had studied their type of magic when he was growing up, he had never heard of these magic users being able to fly like this, so he didn't see it coming. One moment he was standing on solid ground, the next minute he was being yanked high in the air, feeling like he had left his stomach behind. Lydia had been quite amused by his panicked reaction. Gordon reassured him repeatedly that he wasn't going to fall. It took several minutes for Vaati to believe him. This felt far from natural, so he couldn't be completely at ease, no matter how hard he tried to be, but he was able to at least stay calm enough to not be a panicky fool about it.

It was the first time Vaati had gotten a good look at where he had ended up after his trip down the river. Lake Hylia extended out below them, and much like the rest of this Hyrule's landscape, it had probably been magnificent to behold in its better days. Judging by the form of the shoreline, it didn't look like it had any less water in it than it was supposed to, but the water was murky and uninviting. With clear water and full sunlight, it must have been beautiful once. Vaati couldn't help but wish he could go back further in time to see it as it was meant to be seen.

What happened to this place?

They didn't linger there long. The sorcerers flew northeast, staying close to the cliffs on the east side of what he recognized to be the huge clearing he had been in before. He really had traveled all the way across the kingdom, just like they had said. He still didn't know how he'd managed to survive long enough for them to find him at the lake.

Far ahead in the clearing, Vaati thought he could see the river again. It was wrapping south from where Ganon's fortress was, and cut east into the cliffs and disappeared from view. The mouth of the river must be up that way.

They didn't get close enough to it for him to get a better look. Before they reached that river, the sorcerers took a sharp turn east and flew away from the clearing. Up ahead, Vaati saw dense forestland appearing over the horizon. He was surprised to see something green. It had looked like this Hyrule could no longer support flora.

Instead of flying over the dense forest, the sorcerers descended suddenly, and once again Vaati felt his stomach move in a way it normally wouldn't. He closed his eyes tightly, and didn't open them again until he felt solid ground under his feet. He dropped to his knees and sighed with relief as the sorcerers touched down gently in front of him.

"You doing okay?" Lydia asked with a playful smile.

Vaati tried to steady his breathing. "Y-Yes, I'm all right," he answered. "It was as invigorating as it was… terrifying."

Gordon laughed, "It takes some getting used to."

Finally lifting his head and looking around, Vaati asked, "Have we arrived at our destination?"

"Not quite yet. We have to continue on foot. The forest is too thick beyond here to allow us to approach from above."

Vaati nodded in response. "I think a little solid ground would do me well."

They started into the thick forest and continued walking east. Sure enough, the canopy of leaves above them was so thick that they wouldn't be able to tell one thing from another from up in the air. There were no paths to speak of, but there was still enough room between the trees and shrubbery to walk comfortably.

The group walked silently for several minutes, with Lydia and Gordon leading and Vaati only a couple of steps behind. Vaati had so many questions he wanted to ask, but he got the feeling that this wasn't really the best place to talk. It was something about the way the other two were behaving. Vaati caught them occasionally looking around, as if they were expecting something to jump out at them. They were definitely on guard. Vaati couldn't imagine what was making them nervous. He hadn't yet seen these two really use their magic to any great extent, but from what he knew of its nature, it had potential for great power. They could probably defend themselves easily. What was making them so nervous?

"May I ask where we are going?" Vaati asked quietly.

"I know you said you're not from around here," Lydia answered just as quietly, "but as I'm sure you can guess, this is not a very friendly place right now. But we know of a safe place. We're taking you there so you can rest before you continue on to wherever you're going."

Not a friendly place _right now_ , she had said. That led to Vaati's next question. "Did it used to be friendlier out here?"

For a quiet moment, there was no response. She kept walking, looking straight ahead. Finally, she said, "Until pretty recently, yes. I mean, there were some bad guys out here, sure, but nothing like what you see now. This place was stable and beautiful once. And I hope it can be again someday."

"What happened?"

"It's kind of a long story. There was a bit of a catastrophe about four years ago. But we can talk more about that when we get to where we're going."

"Does it have something to do with whatever it is that's making you keep our destination a secret?"

Lydia chuckled. "Is the over cautiousness that obvious? And here I thought I was being subtle."

"Nothing about you is subtle," her brother teased.

When they fell silent again, it was clear that they weren't going to talk about it anymore. Not out here, at least. Vaati decided to change the subject for now.

"That flying magic… Though I think it took years off my life, it was quite impressive. What else can you do? There are different branches, right? Based on what you said before, I'm guessing you two represent black and white."

The two sorcerers stopped in their tracks and spun around to face him. Vaati got a sinking feeling in his stomach as he realized he had said something wrong. Gordon was eyeing him with a little suspicion.

"How do you know about that?" he asked. His tone of voice was calmer than the look in his eyes.

Vaati swallowed and chose his words carefully, praying that he was not so far back in time that his answer wouldn't sound plausible to them. "I-I've read about it. In old books from my kingdom. It was one of the reasons I came here in my travels. I wanted to learn more about it."

It wasn't a complete lie. He _had_ learned about their magic from books, after all. He just hoped that the "old books" part of the fib wasn't going to give him away.

The sorcerers looked at each other silently for a moment.

"I guess that makes sense," Lydia said with a small nod to her brother. "I mean, didn't there used to be whole guilds dedicated to this stuff? Maya and Riku were involved with that kind of thing, right?"

Her brother nodded back, his face finally relaxing again. "Yeah, that's right. I guess there _was_ a time when information about it would be commonplace." He turned his attention back to Vaati and said, "Sorry. It's just that we're not used to other people knowing anything about how our magic works."

"Why not?" Vaati asked.

"Well," Lydia answered, absently looking up at the tree branches above them. "It's more or less a lost art. I think the kid and I are the only ones left who can use it."

Vaati breathed an internal sigh of relief. So the magic was already mostly lost in this time, which made his answer make sense. He had managed to discourage any follow-up questions from them for now. He just wasn't quite ready to tell them the whole truth of where he was from.

The sorcerers turned and continued to walk, and Vaati hurried to catch up with them.

"To answer your initial question," Gordon said, "she and I can both do a little bit of everything, but we definitely have our specialties. I'm more talented in the white magic side of things, as you probably noticed before. On the other hand, if you want something set on fire, or blown up, or anything of that nature, _she's_ the one you should look to."

Even though he couldn't see her face, Vaati could hear something in Lydia's voice that suggested she was rolling her eyes. "Yeah, they're always saying it's my solution to _everything_. Can I help that blowing things up is a really effective way to get things done?!"

"Case in point," Gordon teased with a smirk.

"So I have a simplistic approach," Lydia continued. "So what? It works. You don't have to poke fun." The playful tone of her voice made it clear that she was only feigning offense to her brother's comments.

"Well, the person that _usually_ makes fun of you isn't with us at the moment, so I'm just picking up the slack."

"I'm sure he'll be pleased to know that. No, seriously. He'd be disappointed to know that I went five minutes without being the butt of a joke."

Vaati could do nothing to stop another uncharacteristic smile from creeping up across his face. With each minute he spent with these two, the more fascinating, and admittedly amusing, he found them. Here they were in what seemed to be a complete wasteland, with who-knows-what threatening them, and they still had it in them to joke around. Not many people could be that positive in this kind of environment.

It also showed that they were at ease even with him there. They were traveling with a complete stranger that, if Vaati looked at it objectively, they had no real reason to trust. Yet they had chosen to trust him based on nothing. They had chosen to trust him to the extent that they were willing to expose to him what was probably the only safe haven they had in this whole ruined place. What if he was turned out to be an enemy? Taking him there would be a fatal mistake on their part, and surely they knew that. But here they were, leading him straight to their secret safe place, and were still comfortable enough for playful bantering.

It was making him feel intensely guilty. They were placing all sorts of blind faith in someone they had just met, and he didn't even have it in him to tell them the truth about himself. Surely, he had been through hell, and had a lot of reasons to have a strong sense of self-preservation. But these people had showed incredible selflessness, saving him from death and taking care of him, and all he could do was lie to them?

His initial thoughts were that he should be hesitant to be truthful with them until he was sure not only that they weren't a threat to him, but that they could help him get home. Until they were… _useful_. The thought now made Vaati sickened with himself. Maybe they could help him, and maybe not. That shouldn't be the basis for trust.

If they were going to put their faith in him like this, then he was going to do the same, and tell them the truth.

As he tried to decide first how to apologize to them for being dishonest, and then how to explain everything else, the sorcerers suddenly stopped walking. Gordon was looking around at their surroundings, looking a little perplexed.

"…Are we going the right way?" he asked hesitantly.

His sister's mouth dropped open. "You mean you don't know where we are?"

"I think I got a little sidetracked by the conversation. Now I'm not sure if we're going the right way. Do you recognize this area?"

"Oh, please. You know I can't be trusted with such things. I was just following _you_."

With a roll of his eyes and a sigh, Gordon said, "Well, we'll just have to go up and have a look, to make sure we're still at least going in the right direction."

He and his sister wandered off a little ways with their eyes glued to the canopy above. Vaati didn't follow. He stayed where he was, still trying to think about what he should say to them.

They stopped at a tree about twenty feet off their path, and Gordon pointed up into the branches. "There. I can see a little sunlight. Hopefully we can get up there without getting tangled in the leaves."

"You mean hopefully _you_ can get up there. I don't go up trees. I'd probably just get sap in my hair."

"You're such a girl. Fine, rather than argue with you about how stupid that is, I'll just go myself."

He muttered a word of magic, then shot straight up into the air and grabbed onto the lowest branch. He started a slow climb through the branches, aiming for the ray of sunlight that was somehow finding its way through.

Back on the ground, Lydia stood there facing the tree, muttering quietly to herself. "Everyone _knows_ I'm never in charge of directions. It's practically a rule. Not my fault."

Vaati was vaguely aware of what was going on, but he was still focused on his own thoughts as he stood alone on their path through the forest. He was jarred back into reality when his sensitive ears picked up a sound from elsewhere in the forest. It was quite a ways off in the distance, so he wasn't surprised when Lydia didn't react to it. Those ears of hers probably weren't capable of picking up something so faint. She just continued to stand there, with her back to him, grumbling to herself.

He turned toward where he had heard the noise. It sounded like something moving through the forest a good distance away from them, toward what he thought was north. His eyes scanned the trees in that direction, trees so far away that they no longer looked distinct from each other.

He could see someone out there now. It was a young man dressed in a dark green outfit that looked like it was designed for forest travel. He made almost no sound as he moved through the trees. The only thing that kept him from being thoroughly camouflaged in his surroundings was his brilliantly blond hair. That hair stood out like an Octorok in a blizzard. There was a long sword strapped to his back.

Vaati was about to alert Lydia to this stranger's presence, but his breath caught in his throat when he saw that the man wasn't alone. There was a second person in step right behind him. With a start, Vaati saw that this second man was identical to the first, save for the fact that his clothes were blue instead of green. Twin warriors?

His heart began to pound furiously when a third identical man appeared, and then a fourth, dressed in red and deep violet. All four had identical copies of the same sword strapped to their backs.

Vaati felt like his stomach was twisting in a way that it was never meant to. He became short of breath, and his hands began to shake.

 _The Four Sword!_

That's how his seal had broken. Someone had taken up the Four Sword again.

He had been destroyed by four identical warriors like this that carried the Four Sword. They had cut him down and sealed him away in that terrible place, leaving him to spend an indeterminate amount of time in a personal hell. If this Hyrule had the Four Sword in it…

What if they used it to seal him away again?! No! He wasn't going to let that happen! He was never going back to that place!

Reason started to give way to panic. Vaati's intense fear and rage at the sight of the Four Sword and the identical warriors that carried it manifested in a very real way in his body. Ever since his fall into the river, physical weakness had sent his magic into dormancy. But regained strength and fearing for his very existence was bringing it to bear again, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. It overflowed from him and radiated out in waves.

A terrible shiver went up Lydia's spine as she felt it, and she snapped to attention. She recognized it immediately. She had felt this twice before. Something had come through the time portal with them when they were heading back to their own time – it had felt like this. She had felt it faintly when all of them had come back to Hyrule again. Her brother and the Links had all known something had happened in that portal, but only Lydia seemed to feel that same energy upon returning here. She hadn't said anything to the others at the time, because she honestly wasn't sure if she was imaging it or not. If she wasn't, she still had no clue what it was.

But what she was feeling now, more strongly than ever, made it very clear that she had not imagined it. This was that same dark energy she had felt before, now much more intense. The thing that had come back with them from the sword's time…

Even without turning around to see with her eyes, the source of the energy was undeniable.

Vaati.

She spun around, but Vaati was already moving. He was sprinting through the trees, back the way they had come. The speed was unnatural, most likely aided by this dark magic he had. Before she could even open her mouth to call after him, he was gone.

She stood there unmoving. Her mind thought to go after him, but her body wouldn't cooperate.

Her brother hit the ground hard next to her. "What was that?! It felt just like that thing from before!" He looked around them guardedly. "H-Hey, where's…?"

"That was him," Lydia said.

"Vaati?!" Gordon half-shouted in surprise. "That thing that came through the time portal with us… It was him?! …But we were with him all day! How did we not notice that energy before?"

"I… I don't know. Maybe he was suppressing it. Well, he was also still kinda weak… from the injuries, y'know."

"What happened?"

"He just… He just took off all of a sudden. I felt that crazy energy, and he just took off running."

"Well, come on!" Gordon took a step forward, tugging on Lydia's arm.

She just shook her head and stayed rooted in place. "Forget it. With that magic, he was moving way too fast. Without being able to fly out of here, we'll never catch him."

The boy stared ahead into the trees where Lydia's eyes were still glued. "Wh… Why would…?"

"I don't know. I hope he's okay…"

Gordon's mouth pressed into a thin line, and he placed his hand reassuringly on his sister's shoulder. "We'll look for him the next time we go out. I'm sure he'll be all right until then. You saw yourself how tough he is." He looked back toward the trees again. "Hmm. 'Neighboring kingdom', indeed."

* * *

"And he just took off all of a sudden?" Vio asked.

Everyone was back in Zelda's safe haven now, gathered in the princess' tent. The two sorcerers and the four Links were all gathered around the low table. Princess Zelda was there, as well, still dressed in her leather armor. Lydia and Gordon had just finished telling everyone the whole story about Vaati.

"Yeah." Lydia said, her eyes lowered. "I don't know what happened. He was fine the whole time… then all of a sudden there was this dark energy in the air, and he ran off without a word."

Red had his forehead lowered into his hand. "You two may have led an enemy almost straight here. Do you realize that?"

Lydia shook her head so fast that her hair flipped around. "No, no, he's not an enemy."

"How do you know that? You know we can't risk giving ourselves away yet!"

"Red, please," Green said authoritatively. "Calm down. They were in a tough situation. It's not like they could have just left him at the lake."

"Sure they could have. _I_ could have. It would have been better to have just left him at the shore."

"Hey!" Lydia shouted at Red. She lifted up onto her knees. Her eyes were starting to tear up. "What an awful thing to say!"

Red's eyes were up now, staring at the girl across the table. His eyes remained defiant, but he said begrudgingly, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. But you were still careless in bringing him out here."

Appearing to calm somewhat, Lydia continued. "Listen, I can't explain it, but I have a gut feeling about him! I know he's not a bad guy!"

"Look," Gordon cut in. "It wasn't just her decision, okay? I was there, too. And though I was a little more hesitant about it, I agreed with her. He really did seem all right."

"You trust us, right?"

Red stared back at Lydia silently, until finally he lowered his head and answered, " _Yes_ … Despite my better judgment, I trust you. So if you two say he's okay, then I'll try to believe that."

The girl smiled softly. "Thanks, Red," she said as she lowered herself back down into a sitting position.

"All right, so we've established that Vaati is okay to trust," Vio said, trying to move the conversation on. "And we've also established that it's very likely he's the one that came through time with us."

"So he's from the future?" Blue asked. "From the time we got the sword from?"

Vio nodded. "Looks that way."

"Unfortunately, that's _all_ we know," Gordon said. "He told us he was from a neighboring kingdom and wandered into some trouble when he traveled here."

"I guess he didn't want to tell us the truth," Lydia wondered aloud, "because maybe he didn't think we'd believe him.

"Well, one thing is for certain," Green said. "We'll have to find him again before we take this sword back. We have to get him back to his own time."

"We have to find him _soon_ and bring him back here. He's not safe out there! With magic like that, you think Ganondorf's going to ignore his presence here?"

"Definitely not," her brother agreed.

On the other side of the table, with his arms tightly folded, Red sighed. "I'm not trying to be insensitive here… but I don't think Vaati is our priority at the moment." He raised a hand when Lydia opened her mouth to object. "Let me finish. Our priority is getting the Ocarina of Time and the Master Sword back first. Since one of the pieces is currently in Ganondorf's hands, maybe the goals of getting it back _and_ finding Vaati again will come together on their own. What I'm saying is that maybe we should just concentrate on what we've been doing, and the Vaati thing will work itself out along the way. Going out there and looking around aimlessly isn't going to help anyone. After all, you have no idea where he's gone or why."

As worried as Lydia was about Vaati, she had to admit that Red was making sense. The best thing they could do for Vaati now was just to continue their quest and hope they found him along the way.

"…All right," she agreed. "That's probably best."

Speaking for the first time, Princess Zelda said, "So the first thing that needs to be done is to continue to collect the pieces of the Ocarina of Time." She turned her attention to the Links, and said, "Did you find the piece on the mountain that the fairies were talking about?"

Lydia looked up in surprise. "What's this, now?"

Green smirked at her, and reached into his tunic. "We were a little busy while you were gone." His hand reappeared, and he was holding a piece of blue clay in his hand. With a triumphant chuckle, he placed it on the table in front of him.

"Wow," Gordon said. "Nice job! You guys beat a guardian by yourselves?"

"Did you have your doubts?" Red asked. His mood seemed to be picking up again now that they had moved away from the subject of Vaati.

"You should have seen us," Blue said cheerfully. "We were great!"

Vio took a moment to explain his theory about the sword to everyone else.

When he was finished, Gordon said, "That's really interesting. The sword quadruples the user's ability, but the drawback is that you always have to stay together. If you split up, I imagine the whole thing comes apart."

"Probably," Vio agreed with a nod.

Lydia's mood was also starting to lift again as they got back on track, and the fact that another piece had been recovered was encouraging. Of course, she and Gordon had a surprise of their own. With a grin, she reached down into the pocket of her jeans, produced another piece of blue clay, and set it on the table next to the other one.

All four of the Links stared at it in a stunned silence. Princess Zelda clapped her hands together in excitement.

Red's eyebrow raised and he grinned. "I thought you were going to just 'look around'. So much for _that,_ huh?"

"Where did you find it?" Green asked.

"At her old Dragon Slave crater," Gordon answered.

"Just out in the open like that?"

The sorcerer shrugged.

"Well," Blue said to Lydia with a wide smile. "Looks like you finally got to let loose with your magic again."

The girl sighed. "I wish."

"What do you mean? Didn't that piece have a guardian, too?"

Gordon's lips were curled into a smirk, but he said nothing. Apparently it was up to Lydia to tell this part of the story.

"Well," she said shyly, "it thought I was Maya."

"Say what?!" Red exclaimed.

"It makes sense, though. I mean, she's the one that put the Ocarina's defenses in place. So… the guardian thought I was Maya and stopped attacking."

"It called her 'Mistress'," Gordon added with a laugh. "She _named_ it, too."

"And I told him I'd take care of the piece from now on, and he gave it to me."

"Wait a minute," Green said, raising a hand. "You mean to tell me that we had to fight and defeat a guardian, and you just had to _ask_ for that piece back?"

She shrugged. "Basically."

He laughed, "That's definitely a story to tell the grandchildren someday."

"So, that means there's only the one piece left," Vio said. "The one Ganondorf has."

The table fell silent again. The truth of the matter was that none of them had any idea how they were going to approach this. They couldn't fight Ganondorf without the Master Sword, but they couldn't get the Master Sword back without fighting Ganondorf.

"Now that we have five of the six pieces," Zelda said, "I think that means it's time for us to make our move."

Everyone else looked up at her. "Make your move?" Vio asked. "You mean—"

"Yes, that's right. We've spent the last four years training. It's time for us to strike back and reclaim our kingdom."

"But wait a second," Lydia said. "It's too soon for that, isn't it? We can't really hope to defeat Ganondorf without the Master Sword. And there's still four of _them_." She gestured toward the Links. "The fact is, Gordon and I can pack a punch, and I admit I am _very_ impressed with everything that's been done here. But in the end… The original, _whole_ Hero of Time is still the key. I've been involved in this business long enough to know that's the truth."

Zelda sighed and nodded. "I know you're right, but… I don't know what else we can do."

Lydia finger-tapped on the table, and added, "Honestly, I don't know what else we can do, either. Maybe you're right. Maybe it _is_ time to make our move. After all, if he doesn't know already, Ganondorf's going to find out that we have the other missing pieces now, and he's not going to sit around much longer. I'm surprised he hasn't moved against us already. We may have no choice here."

"So…," Green said, "we attack him with everything we've got." He turned to Zelda. "Let the six of us go alone first. Maybe we'll be able to get that piece back and get away alive without endangering anyone else."

Zelda's blue eyes were piercing. "And if not… That's where the rest of us come in."

Looking determined, he nodded.

The princess nodded back with the same determined look in her eyes. She got to her feet and said, "I'm going to make the preparations. I'll gather everyone and get them ready for the battle. We'll come to your aid as quickly as we can get mobilized." She reached into her armor and produced the small leather pouch she kept the other three pieces of the Ocarina of Time in. She passed it over to Lydia. "You carry these now. If you do manage to get that last piece, you'll need them." She stood and started to walk toward the tent's opening, but paused to say, "May the goddesses protect you all."

Tears welled up in the princess's eyes, and before she would allow herself to lose her composure, she quickly left the tent.

The six left behind all got to their feet and gathered up their gear.

"I don't like this," Red grunted as he strapped his sword and shield to his back.

"We've done it to ourselves, though," Blue said, adjusting his clothes. "We're so good at what we do that we've worked ourselves into a corner. We got both missing pieces back in a single day, and now we have no choice but to move forward with this a lot sooner than anyone was prepared to."

"So we just have to hope we get that sixth piece back before he kills us."

"Come on, guys, it'll work out," Lydia said. "Keep in mind, we've all faced a lot of crap together over the years and made it through alive. This is just another day."

"One thing, though," Gordon said, "We probably shouldn't just march across Hyrule Field toward the castle. He'll see us coming a mile away."

"No problem," Blue said cheerfully. "Navi and her friends showed us a shortcut through the forest that leads to Kakariko. We'll just go that way again. By the time we have to go out in the open like that, there will be a lot less distance to cover."

One by one, all six of them emerged from the tent, still discussing how best to approach all of this. Outside, people were rushing around everywhere. Whenever someone passed close by, they would pat one of them on the back or say a word or two of encouragement before moving on. Men and women of all the different races were emerging from their homes carrying weapons and armor, and appeared to be heading for the training fields.

"It's inspiring, isn't it?" Green asked with a proud smile. "The way everyone's pulling together like this, even knowing just what it is they're facing?"

Blue nodded and said, "It's amazing, really. Even after losing everything, they still have the bravery it takes to defend their kingdom, even against someone like Ganondorf."

"I guess you don't have to have magical power or destiny's favor to be a hero," Gordon said. "They're all heroes in their own ways."

"Let's make them proud, guys," Lydia said. "Let's go out there and get that sixth piece. And then… We can finally end this."

* * *

All that mattered was to keep running. Everything else in Vaati's world was a faint memory for the moment. All that was left was to run. The panic from seeing the Four Sword warriors had completely taken over his mind, triggering a fight or flight response. His body had chosen flight, and he had been running ever since.

No longer holding his magic at bay, as he had been since coming to this time, it was helping him to run at an inhuman speed. Running mindlessly, unsure of where he was going, he was back out of the forest in seconds. He ran west until he was back out into the clearing, where he turned north and started to follow the river.

He was so mindless with panic and rage that he could barely remember his own name. Why was this happening? He would rather die than get sealed away again. He would have to defend himself if they attacked him and tried to seal him, but he was defeated by the Four Sword once before. How could he expect to win this time around?

Finally, Vaati regained enough of his senses to control his body again. He skidded to a stop, kicking up dust in all directions. He stood there silently for several minutes, shaking with rage. Looking up, he could see he had run all the way to the north end of the clearing, and had ended up at the entrance to that ReDead-filled town again.

He recalled Ganon had offered him power if he agreed to kill someone for him. The Vaati of yesterday would sooner have spit in Ganon's face than cooperate with him in any way. But the Vaati that stood there now was so overcome by his own fear of the Four Sword that all rational thought on the matter was pushed aside. All he could think about was the Four Sword warriors, and he was quickly becoming consumed with the desire to get revenge for being sealed away.

To defeat them, he would need extra power. But did he dare reconsider Ganon's offer?

He once again saw the image of the identical men in his head. Rage surged within him, and before he had even made a conscious decision about Ganon's deal, his body had already started moving forward. Like a man possessed, he entered the town square again. It was still fully populated by the zombie monsters, but Vaati no longer feared them. Casually raising his arms, he called upon his magic. Black lighting shot from his fingers and into the ReDeads in his path, reducing them to smoldering ash. He walked uncaringly down the path he was clearing for himself, paying little attention to the ReDeads that remained on either side. They made no move against him.

As soon as he was through the town, a dark shadow appeared on the path again. It was approaching him, tall and menacing. The clouds above shifted, allowing more light into the valley. The now-familiar Gerudo man stood there, staring angrily at Vaati. Vaati didn't waver. He knew he couldn't show any weakness now.

Vaati finally stopped several paces from him. He stood his ground there, waiting for the big man to make his move.

Ganondorf said nothing at first. He just stared at Vaati, his face hard and angry. Finally, he spoke through clenched teeth.

"I _thought_ that was your power I felt," he growled. "My first thought is to remove your head from your shoulders, but I have to admit, I'm intensely curious as to what possessed you to come back here. Considering that you somehow survived the Gerudo Falls, you'd think the smart decision would be to never show your face to me again. What's changed, young lad?"

Vaati swallowed hard, trying to keep at bay the bile that was rising in his throat. He couldn't believe what he was about to do, but that mental image of the Four Sword warriors drove him on.

"I've… reconsidered your offer."

Ganondorf chuckled to himself, reaching up to finger the dark scar across his face. Was he serious? Did this young whelp not realize that that offer expired the second he inflicted this wound upon him? Just the same, he couldn't help but be curious. If the boy's reasons didn't amuse him, he would die just as easily a few minutes from now as he would right this second, so he felt there wasn't too much harm in asking.

"Oh. _Have_ you now? But, lad, you were so determined to have nothing to do with me before. You made that point quite forcefully. Do tell, what changed your mind?"

Vaati said nothing for a moment. He simply stood there with his fists clenched. As Ganondorf watched those fists, waiting for blood to be drawn from the nails that were surely digging into his palms, he felt his patience wane. Every passing second made him less interested in the boy's change of heart.

Finally, he answered, keeping his eyes glued to the ground. He stammered out partial sentences only, saying, "I can't… Not by myself… Four of him…"

Ganondorf's breath caught in his throat. Four of him? The only four of anybody he knew was Link. Did this kid have some kind of grudge against him? His mouth curled into a wicked sneer.

 _The enemy of my enemy is my pawn_ , the Evil King thought.

"It looks like we can help each other after all," Ganondorf said. "What's your name, kid?"

The boy swallowed again, and replied quietly, "Vaati."

"I see. Well, Vaati, today is your lucky day. It so happens that those four identical men are part of my problem. You'd like to see them destroyed?"

Vaati nodded very slightly.

"Then we have similar goals," the Gerudo man continued. "I don't know what you have against them, but I really don't care. If you help me, I will give you the power you need to defeat them."

"What's the condition?" the boy asked skeptically. "You said before you wanted somebody killed."

"Indeed. Those four warriors will have a woman with them. She's much more of a problem for me than you would guess by looking at her. I need her dead."

Vaati raised an eyebrow. "You need me to kill a _woman_? Why can't you do that yourself?"

Ganondorf ground his teeth for a moment, then calmed down again. Insolent boy. "Like I said during our rather unfortunate last encounter, she will be protected. Protected by those four warriors that seem to bother you so much."

"Then there's a serious flaw in your logic," Vaati shot back. "You won't give me the power I need until I kill the woman, but I can't kill the woman without getting past the people I mean to destroy with that very power."

The Gerudo man breathed slowly through his nose, then replied, "Well, then, you're just going to have to be very sneaky, won't you?"

There was no longer a mocking tone in Vaati's voice. "And how do you propose I do that?"

Ganondorf looked absently off to the southeast, concentrating on something Vaati couldn't determine. After a moment, his eyes refocused and he turned his attention back to Vaati.

"I can feel them now," the big man growled. "They're going north through the forest. Before long they're going to come out in Kakariko Village's graveyard. You will meet them there. Hide yourself well. You will only get _one_ shot at the woman they have with them. If you do not kill her with a single strike, you never will, and she and her companions will destroy you very quickly for trying to."

Vaati's heart was pounding unchecked in his chest. In order to defeat the Four Sword warriors, he was going to have to face them one more time. He couldn't get the power he needed to defeat them without facing them again. Trying to steady himself, he thought about the fact that he didn't necessarily have to fight them just yet. They were just going to be nearby, that's all. All he had to do was kill the woman quickly, and be gone again just as quickly, like a ghost. Barely even there at all. He could do it. He knew he could.

But should he? The rational part of his mind was fighting fiercely, trying to break through his current madness.

He started to be plagued by second thoughts. "I've… I've never actually _killed_ anyone before," he said quietly, mostly to himself. "I don't know if I can…"

Ganondorf gritted his teeth. He was _not_ going to lose his grip on this chance. "You have to if you want to defeat them," he said forcefully. "Like I said, I don't know what you have against those men, but this is your only chance to beat them."

Vaati's face grew determined as that rational part of its brain collapsed in momentary defeat. "Yes. I have to defeat them. I want my revenge."

The Gerudo man breathed a silent sigh of relief, then said, "Very good. Actually, there's one more thing."

When Vaati turned to look, he saw the big man reaching somewhere into his armor. When his hand reappeared, he was holding what looked to be a piece of broken blue clay.

"See this?" Ganondorf said, carefully twirling the piece in his fingers. "There are five more of these. If that woman is carrying anything like this, you must get them and bring them back to me."

"What is it?"

"That doesn't matter," he grunted as he put the blue clay back somewhere under his chest plate. "If she has any, get them. That's all. Now hurry and go, or you'll miss your chance. You _must_ be in position when they arrive in the village or you'll have no hope of killing the woman. Just go back the way you came and follow the river east. Go."

Without further words, Vaati turned and ran back toward the Market, disappearing quickly into the darkness.

As Ganondorf watched him go, another sneer crawled across his face. Of course, wasn't going to actually give the kid any power in the end. Once he killed the sorceress, he would no longer be useful, and he would just dispose of him. With the girl gone, he would be able to defeat the others without too much trouble. And then he would find and crush Princess Zelda, and finally claim total victory.

It was just a matter of time now.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

 _What is taking them so long?_ Vaati wondered.

At first, he had thought that there would be no way for his target to approach this abandoned old village from the south. The entire south side was protected by a high wall. He remembered, however, that Ganon had said they would get in through the graveyard, so Vaati followed the wall farther into the village until he found it. Sure enough, in the south wall of this run-down graveyard, there was a large crack in the barrier wall, wide enough for a man to get through. So he had found a large tombstone nearby to hide behind, where he had been crouched in wait ever since.

He had been waiting here for almost an hour, passing the time by watching the shadows around him dance. The sun was starting to set, and it was growing darker by the minute. His view of the break in the wall was growing dimmer. If they didn't arrive soon, he would barely be able to see them at all. He shifted slightly and heaved an irritated sigh. His legs were starting to cramp.

He knew he had to have patience. This was his only chance to defeat his enemies. If sacrificing one nameless person meant he could gain the power to keep himself from being sealed away again, then so be it. His madness kept him from having any other thoughts than this.

Finally, he could hear faint voices. At first he wondered if it was just the wind brushing against the dead trees all around, but the voices continued and became stronger as they got closer.

Vaati shifted his stance and peeked out from his hiding place. He ground his teeth together when he saw that a very troublesome shadow had settled itself right over the break in the wall. He wouldn't be able to see who was coming through until they were a few steps out.

The voices were very close now, speaking in hushed tones. A shape started to come through the break. Vaati's heart raced.

He couldn't see too much of him with the shadow in his way, but the shape was definitely male. He squeezed through the crack in the wall, and once he stepped out of the shadow, he could see that it was definitely one of the Four Sword warriors, specifically, the one that was dressed in red. Another followed close behind, this one dressed in dark violet.

The third person in the group was coming through the crack now, but this one was about a head shorter, with girlish curves and long hair flowing behind…

 _Now!_ Vaati's mind screamed at him. _Move, man! Move!_

Calling his magic forth, he leapt out from his hiding place, and he ran inhumanly fast toward his target. He reared his arm back, holding two fingers out straight. Dark magic gathered around those fingers. He would be quick and efficient – one swipe with that hand across her neck would remove her head, and it would be over. He would be gone again before anyone around her could react.

He was moving so quickly that none of them had even turned to look in his direction yet. Any moment now they know he was there, but by then, it would be too late. The deed would be done, and he would be retreating again faster than any of them would be able to follow.

So close now! He was so close to gaining the ability to finally defeat his enemies! If he could just follow through…!

He was almost upon her now. Time seemed to slow down all around him. As he planted his feet next to her and prepared to make his strike, the shadow that was hiding her face suddenly shifted as some clouds above changed their position in the sky. Her big, green eyes shifted in slow motion to face him, finally realizing he was there, realizing it only a second too late to do anything to save herself. It was over for her now.

Suddenly, Vaati stopped in mid-strike. The environment all around him continued to move in slow-motion as he stood there, frozen in place, with his arm still reared up in the air. The magic crackled silently on his fingers, waiting impatiently to be put to use.

Those eyes… This face…!

 _No!_

He stood there frozen still as the magic his fingers faded and time resumed its normal flow around him. His target stood frozen, as well, looking at him with confusion in her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but someone yelled angrily and tackled Vaati hard from somewhere off to his left, and the next thing he knew, he was on the ground.

Somebody was sitting on stop of him. Vaati opened his eyes in time to see a fist coming straight at him, hitting him hard across his jaw. Stars danced in front of his eyes and he tasted blood. Whoever had tackled him hit him hard a few more times, until Lydia's familiar voice called out.

"Red! Stop!"

Vaati cracked one eye open and saw that it was the red Four Sword warrior on top of him. He twisted around to look back at the girl, his arm reared back for another strike.

"What? Why?!", he demanded.

The other two Four Sword warriors had come through the break at some point during the fight, and with a sick feeling in his stomach, Vaati could now see that Gordon was among them, too. Still in shock from the blows to his head, he was still lying unmoving where he had fallen.

Lydia was there with him suddenly, gently pushing Vaati's attacker off of him. She leaned over him and touched the side of his head where he had been slugged.

She stared into his eyes. Her face showed the confusing in her heart she was feeling. She finally managed to speak. "…What were you…?"

His mind suddenly snapped back into gear again, and he fully realized what had just happened. He had almost killed…

 _No!_ , his mind screamed.

Panic welling up again, he pushed Lydia's hand away and leapt to his feet. Calling upon his magic again, he sprinted through the graveyard and into the village and disappeared from view.

"Why'd you stop me?" Red demanded again. "That guy almost— Hey!"

Lydia was already running after the man that attacked her. She ran for several paces before lifting off of the ground and taking off in flight. She disappeared over the cliffs.

Red looked back at Gordon, his mouth hanging open, apparently at a complete loss for words.

The other three warriors look eagerly at the sorcerer. "What was that about?" Blue asked him.

The boy's eyebrows were wrinkled in apparent confusion. "That was Vaati," he answered.

" _That_ guy?!" Red pressed. "The guy that you said you _trusted_?"

Gordon shook his head and said, "No, no, something's not right about this."

" _I'll_ say something's not right! He just tried to kill your sister!"

"But he _didn't_. He stopped just as he was about to. Why would he do that?"

Already starting forward to join the pursuit, Green said, "We're not going to find out just standing here. Come on, we have to catch up!"

* * *

Peeking out of the window, Vaati could see her. She was up in the air a ways south of where he was hiding, flying around rather erratically. She'd fly in one direction, stop to look around, then fly off in another direction. He knew she was looking for him, but he wasn't going to let her find him. He couldn't face her again.

He had fled to the only place that was familiar to him, which was, unfortunately, the ReDead-infested town that was only a stone's throw from where Ganon's keep was. He had managed to avoid the ReDeads completely and had broken into one of the abandoned shops and hidden himself there.

And here he now sat, feeling disgusted with himself.

How could he have allowed this to happen? After all of his bravado in the face of Ganon the day before, he had so easily given in to his irrational madness and fear of the Four Sword. He had let himself so easily lose control of his senses. In a moment of weakness, he allowed Ganon to use him again. Even after all he had been through, he had let Ganon use him _again_! So much for principles. So much for pride.

And it had led him to almost kill one of the only people that had been genuinely kind to him.

What a worthless creature he was.

What was he supposed to do now? How did he ever expect to get home? He couldn't stand the thought of facing the sorcerers again, not after what he had done.

He had to make this up to them somehow. He had little hope that they would forgive him after this, but he had to try. That is, if he expected to be able to live with himself to any degree.

The matter of Ganon was the first thing that came to mind. It was painfully clear now that it was Lydia that was the thorn in his side. It was strange that Ganon hadn't so much as mentioned Gordon to him. They both had to be pretty nasty opponents in battle, based on what he knew about their magic. Why was he so focused on the elder sister?

More importantly, the two sorcerers and the Four Sword warriors must be fighting Ganon, trying to stop him from whatever he was doing in this time.

Vaati felt another guilty jab in the pit of his stomach. He had gone temporarily insane over nothing. The Four Sword warriors weren't his enemies this time around. He had let his assumptions run wild, and look at what had almost happened! Terrible.

He had to make this up to them! But how? It's not like he could just go to Ganon's keep and defeat him for them.

His head shot up when he suddenly remembered something. Something Ganon had said to him before he left to intercept them in the village. He had showed him a piece of blue clay, and said that if Lydia had any like it, he was supposed to get them and bring them back.

Multiple pieces of something… What was it? Why was it so important?

If Lydia was supposed to have some, were they collecting pieces just like the one Ganon had? If he had one, wouldn't they need that piece, too?

Vaati got to his feet, with a new kind of determination in his eyes. He might not be able to defeat Ganon himself, but…

Not bothering to hide his magic anymore, he burst back out of the building and sprinted through the square. Throwing his black lightning ahead of him, he cleared a path for himself through the mass of ReDeads. As he turned down the valley that lead to Ganon's keep, he used his power to feel at the air. He could detect Ganon's presence, somewhere up above him. He must be inside this time, up in the tower.

Going around the edge of the lake of lava, he got a magically-aided running start toward the entrance to the keep. With a powerful leap, he soared over the gap between the path and the keep itself, feeling a rush of heat from the lava below him. He landed hard inside of the keep's door, not breaking stride. He continued inside, blowing past hallways branching out in other directions. The tower was more toward the center of the keep, so he kept running that way, hoping to find some stairs.

He broke out into a large room with a high ceiling. This room was very dungeon-like, with tiny windows high off the ground as the only source of natural light, which was quickly waning as the sun dipped further below the horizon.

What caught Vaati's attention here was a large opening in the right wall that led to a wide staircase. Without slowing down in the slightest, he started up those stairs, and when they started to wind, he knew he was going to the right way. Ganon's presence was growing stronger. He was just ahead.

When he finally got to the top, he was in some kind of throne room. Tapestries hung from the walls and the windows were larger than they were downstairs.

Ganon was sitting in a large armchair against one of the walls, resting his chin in one of his hands, looking like he had been expecting Vaati. It wasn't surprising. Vaati hadn't been making any effort to mask his approach.

"Since you're still alive," Ganon began, slowly getting to his feet and starting toward where Vaati stood, "I'm going to assume that you were successful. If you had failed, I know for a fact they would have killed you very easily and very quickly. Yet here you are, breathless. It must have been quite an exciting retreat."

He stopped several paces away from Vaati. This poor, deluded kid. He didn't even suspect that he was about to die. He had outlived his usefulness.

As he prepared himself to strike, Ganondorf suddenly felt a familiar and sickening presence somewhere outside of his keep. In disbelief, his eyes darted to the nearest window. There was no way he was imagining it, and it there was no way it was anything else. This kid hadn't killed the sorceress! She was still alive, and she was nearby!

In nearly-mindless fury, Ganondorf turned back toward Vaati, but the boy was already in midair, and he slammed into him, knocking them both over. As they grappled on the floor, Vaati punched into Ganondorf's chest and sent his magic directly into body. Ganondorf yelled with fury and swung at Vaati's head, but the nimble boy ducked out of the path of the strike and sent another jab of magic into his torso.

Finally, Ganondorf was able to get a hit in. He slammed his fist into Vaati's stomach, and the follow-through sent him sliding across the room. The boy finally came to a stop near one of the room's tall windows.

He lay on the ground for a moment, then pushed himself up on his elbows, coughing and gasping for air. He looked up at Ganondorf with a hateful glare as he continued to slowly rise. Ganondorf almost missed it, but the kid now held something in the hand that he had been striking him with. With a triumphant smirk on his face, Vaati continued to glare at Ganondorf as he tucked the thing he was holding into his clothes.

Ganondorf caught a glimpse of what the object was before it disappeared into Vaati's clothes. A piece of blue clay. His heart jumped, and he unconsciously patted at his armor, as if he needed to feel for himself that the piece of the Ocarina of Time was no longer there. How…?!

The kid had tricked him!

The most unimaginable fury welled up inside him. Both of the Triforce pieces he held churned in response, and with an angry roar, Ganondorf sent a wave of magic at Vaati, meaning to turn him to ash where he stood. Vaati, however, put up defenses with his own magic just in time, and Ganondorf's magic broke apart when it hit him. Though he managed to save his own life, Ganondorf's attack was very powerful, and the shockwave knocked him backward. He flew through the air and crashed through the window behind him, and he began the long plummet toward the lava pit below.

The world was moving in slow motion again, but not from his magic this time. His life began flashing before his eyes, and he tried to close his eyes against it, because there weren't too many fond memories there. A childhood spent as a loner, a misguided adolescence, a young adulthood where he was influenced by the likes of Ganon and was manipulated into doing terrible things…

And even at the end, he couldn't even manage a single good deed in the hopes of redeeming himself. He had managed to get the piece of whatever-it-was from Ganon, but it was about to be destroyed along with him in the lava pit. If only he had more time, he could make all this right!

Something slammed into him, and he found himself suddenly flying sideways instead of straight down. A slim pair of arms was wrapped around his midsection, carrying him up and away from the lava pit. He heard a voice above him that at this moment, to him, sounded like the singing of angels.

"Hang the heck on!" Lydia yelled over the wind in his ear. "This is gonna be wild!"

As she carried them higher and higher into the air, so high that the entirety of Ganon's keep was below their feet, the sorceress began to recite something forcefully.

" **Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows**

 **Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows!"**

Even with the wind seeming to rush in all directions around him, Vaati could feel the air pressure around them drop. The small hairs on the back of his neck stood up straight. There was intense magical energy gathering here unlike anything he'd ever felt before.

" **I pledge myself to conquer all the foes who stand,**

 **Before the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hand."**

Ganondorf leaned out of the broken tower window, staring up at them with a murderous fury in his eyes.

" **Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed,**

 **By the power you and I possess!"**

Lydia readjusted her grip in a way that allowed her to temporarily hang onto Vaati with one arm. The threw her free arm toward the keep below, and yelled at the top of her lungs.

" _ **DRAGON SLAVE!"**_

A beam of red magic the width of a large tree trunk shot out from her open palm with so much force that the two of them were blown even higher up into the air. Vaati caught a final glimpse of Ganondorf's angry face just as the beam of energy slammed into the keep. A deafening explosion followed, and the magic spread out from the keep in an expanding dome of energy.

Lydia swung them around and started flying south toward the field. Behind them, the spell continued to spread. The entire keep was now engulfed in it, and even then, it kept going. It destroyed the entire valley, and spread down into the ReDead town as well. Buildings and abandoned houses were uplifted by the preceding shockwave before being reduced to timbers by the main spell that followed.

The blindingly-bright dome continued to burn as they touched down safely some ways south into the field. Vaati dropped to the ground, and Lydia crouched down next to him. They continued to watch as the magically finally started to fade. The dome of magic dimmed and shrank, until it finally disappeared completely. The air pressure slowly rose to normal, and the wind finally stopped howling. All was as it was again, save for the gigantic debris-littered crater that now replaced the keep, the valley, and the Market.

"Whoo!" Lydia cheered, throwing a fist in the air. "That was my best one yet! Oh, _man_ , I've wanted to do that for a long time!" She patted Vaati's arm enthusiastically. "How was _that_ for a demonstration, huh?"

Vaati stammered, trying to find words. "Is… Is he...?"

The sorceress scoffed. "I wish. The guy's like a cockroach. That's the _fourth_ one of those he's been hit with over the years. There's no way that's the last of him. At best, I may have bought us a little time."

Somebody off in the distance called Lydia's name. Even in the ever-increasing darkness of the night, Vaati just make out her five companions reaching the crest of a nearby hill, running toward them.

He turned to Lydia, who was still looking very proud of herself.

"…Why?" he asked her. "Why did you save me like that? Even after…"

The girl looked at him as if he had asked her why her hair was brown. "Why wouldn't I?" she asked with a grin. "I said I had a gut feeling about you, and it turns out I was right after all. I can't believe you fought Ganondorf on your own like that! You _are_ a gusty thing, aren't you?"

"I don't understand. I almost…"

"But you didn't. I'm sure you have your reasons for what happened back there, but you can tell me later. Right now, we have to get the hell out of here."

She started to stand, but Vaati grabbed her shirt sleeve and held her fast. "Wait. Wait, please. It's true, I did have my reasons for what happened, but I was an idiot, and I want to try to make it up to you." He reached into his clothes and produced the piece of blue clay he had stolen, and held it in his open palm for her to see. "I don't know what this is, but you're collecting these, aren't you? He said you might have others like it."

Vaati jumped when Lydia suddenly let out an excited shriek. She dropped to her knees and grabbed the piece from his hand.

"Holy…!" she yelled. "How did you get this?!"

"I… I stole it from him during the fight…"

The girl shrieked happily again and threw her arms around Vaati's neck. "I can't believe it! I can't believe it! You got it!" She released her grip and looked him straight in the eye. "Forget about making anything up to me – you just saved Hyrule!"

"I did?"

"Damn right, you did!"

The others caught up right about then, and they were all talking so quickly that it was hard to tell who was saying what.

"Was that a Dragon Slave?!"

"What are you yelling about?"

"What happened?"

"You'd better explain yourself quickly, little man, before I hurt you some more!" That last one was definitely Red.

Lydia's reply to everything was to triumphantly hold up the sixth piece of the Ocarina of Time for them all to see. "Look what he got!"

"Is that the last one?!" Gordon shouted.

"It sure is! He _stole_ it."

"How long is going to take to put it back together?" Green asked.

A loud, animalistic roar ripped through air from the ruins of the north. The center of the crater shook and the soil began to fall away as something large rose from under the ground.

"Longer than we have," Lydia answered through her clenched teeth. "Look who's back already."

Ganondorf rose out of the crater, but he was no longer in his human form. He had transformed into the giant monster with the pig's head and tusks that they remembered from the battle four years before. He stood at least fifty feet high in this form, with big, strong arms that he swung around angrily as he shook the rest of the soil off of himself. Once again, he had a large bladed weapon in each massive hand.

With a growl so intense that it made the ground beneath their feet rumble, he started to stomp out of the crater and toward them. They had less than a minute before he would be on top of them.

"Oh, great," Red growled. "He's not going to wait for us to get the Master Sword back. We can't fight him like this and hope to win."

"But where can we possibly go?" Blue asked. "We can't go back to the forest – we'll lead him right to where everyone else is hiding!"

"And even if we can get away from him for now," Lydia added, "who knows how long it'll take to put the Ocarina back together? Dammit, we just don't have the time we need!"

Lydia felt a tapping on her shoulder. She turned and saw it was Vaati that was trying to get her attention.

"I'm assuming you and your brother are responsible for your friend here getting to my time to get that sword. Can you take us all back there? He wouldn't be able to follow us there, and you'd have the time you need to get ready for this."

Everyone turned and stared at Vaati for a moment. He was right, they all realized. They could go back to the future, prepare themselves for this battle, and go back to the point they left from. It would almost be like they were never gone.

Gordon's teeth clenched as he looked back at Ganondorf's large form getting closer with each passing second. "That spell would take time to cast, and I don't think he's going to stand by and let us do it."

"Hey, wait!" Lydia shouted, her face lighting up like the sun. "I just got the coolest idea I've ever had!" With a wild smile on her face, she placed two fingers in her mouth, and whistled up toward the sky as loudly as she could.

Something broke through the clouds and shot through the sky toward them like a bullet. Everyone except the two sorcerers crouched low to the ground, certain that this giant thing was going to land on them. But at the last moment, it spread giant wings out and drastically slowed its descent. It gracefully landed on the ground behind them, crouched down on all fours. It was a giant, golden-colored dragon.

Ganondorf stopped his march toward them. He stood there and glared silently.

The four Links looked at each other, stunned. Except for a color difference, it was almost exactly like the dragon they had fought on top of Death Mountain. They all reached for their swords, prepared to fight it, but stopped when they realized that Lydia was talking to it.

"Goldie! See that pig-faced monstrosity?" She swung her arm and pointed toward Ganondorf. "That's the guy that was trying to steal the artifact! Now he's after us and we need to get away. Can you buy us some time?"

The dragon crouched lower, like a big cat stalking its prey. Its scaly lips curled back to reveal its numerous teeth. It almost looked like it was smiling.

"With _great_ pleasure, Mistress," it replied a deep, growly voice.

Goldie leapt over the group in a single bound, hitting the ground on the other side at a gallop. With a roar, he tackled Ganondorf at full speed, and they both rolled around, becoming nothing more than a mass of pounding fists and snapping jaws.

"Come on, Goldie will keep him occupied for a minute!" Lydia shouted. "Let's get that spell going!"

Managing to push Goldie's face away for just a moment, Ganondorf roared toward the sky. The ground beneath their feet started to shake and loosen. Small mounds started to rise in the dirt. It looked like something was coming up out of the ground.

"Everybody move!" Green shouted. "Back up!"

The entire group turned and ran until they could no longer feel the ground moving beneath them. When they turned back, they could see hundreds of mounds of dirt rising all around where Ganondorf and Goldie were fighting. They all kept rising higher until they were each about the height of an average man. The dirt fell away, revealing an entire army of Stalfos, all carrying nasty-looking swords, axes, and spears.

"Oh, hell," Lydia growled. "Okay, Gordon, start the spell." She stepped forward and shifted into a fighting stance. "I'll do my best to hold them off."

"You can't!" her brother shouted. "You can't hold off an entire army of those things by yourself! After shooting off a Dragon Slave like that, you need time to rest before you can fight at full power!"

"There's no need for that!" Vio shouted, pointing off toward the east. "Look!"

They all looked in that direction, and heard the commotion before they really saw it. It sounded like a lot of shouting. Princess Zelda was just emerging over a hill, riding Epona, dressed in her battle armor with a familiar pearl-handled long sword held off to her side. She raised the sword in the air, and then held it out in front of her. It looked like a charge command.

Like a great flood, a swarm of people appeared over the hills, following her. Dozens at first, and then hundreds of people started coming into view. Hylians, Gerudo, Gorons, Zoras, and even the Kokiri were there, men and women, all dressed in their race's own style of armor and weaponry. Some were on horseback, and the rest were on foot.

The army of Hyruleans roared their battle cries and crashed into the army of Stalfos head on. At first, the two armies were fighting along an invisible line between their respective groups, but it wasn't long before they started to meld with each other into one indistinguishable mass of swinging weapons and shouting. In the very back of the enemy army, Ganondorf continued to tangle with the dragon, neither really gaining any ground against the other.

Epona broke free from the battle and galloped over to where the group was watching the battle. Princess Zelda was holding tightly to her reigns, her long blond ponytail swinging behind her.

"Do whatever it is you need to do to get the Master Sword back!" the princess shouted to them. "We'll hold them off as long as we can!" She turned Epona back around to face the ongoing battle, and she loudly whistled a few different times in different pitches. Every time she did, some part of her army would shift position or change tactics. She was leading them even from back here.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Gordon was deep in concentration, already half complete in casting the spell that would take them forward to Vaati's time. His fingers came together to form different seals as he chanted words of magic under his breath. After a couple of tense minutes, he opened his eyes and swung his right arm around in a circle. A bright spot of light appeared in mid-air, quickly spreading to form a human-sized swirling vortex that they all knew well by this point. This was their escape.

"Everybody join hands!" Gordon yelled, waving them all into the portal. "Go, go!"

Gordon was the first to leap through. All four Links followed immediately, joined by the hands. Vio was in the back, and he grabbed Vaati's hand and pulled him along behind him. Lydia had a hold of Vaati's other arm, bringing up the rear. Despite having done this several times now, she still couldn't help but close her eyes as she jumped in. This was never a very pleasant experience.

Deafening wind rushed all around them as they all experienced the sensation of flying. Lydia didn't have to open her eyes to know what was going on. They were traveling hundreds of years forward through Hyrule's time stream. Unintelligible voices from the ages came and went as they continued on.

Suddenly, they burst back into the open air, which was now still again. Lydia stumbled when her feet hit solid ground again, and she dropped to her knees. Carefully opening her eyes, she squinted against bright sunlight. It had been nighttime where they had just been, so it was obvious they were somewhere different now. She had a disturbing thought then – Gordon had found this place originally, but he hadn't traveled here himself. She hoped he had brought them to the right place.

When her eyes finally adjusted to the sunlight, it was clear that he had. She recognized the run-down ruins in the grassy field. Nearby stood the same wall with the eye marking that they had seen the last time they were here. And in front of that wall stood the pedestal where the sword they took had been resting.

And, since there was only one of each of them here, it looked like Gordon had had the sense to take them to a point in time somewhere after she and Link had last been here. Good thing, too, Lydia thought. In the heat of the moment, she had forgotten to remind him to try not to destroy space-time with a paradox.

"Is this the right place?" Gordon called.

Expecting his sister or one of the Links to answer, he was surprised when Vaati was the first to speak up.

"Yes," he said quietly. "This is it. This is where I was sealed."

Everyone looked at him in surprise. "Sealed?" Vio repeated.

Vaati nodded sadly. "I think I owe you all an explanation."

* * *

"So that's why you attacked Lydia like that," Green said.

"Yes, I'm afraid so," Vaati confirmed.

Everyone was sitting in a circle nearby the sword's pedestal. Lydia was off a little ways to the side, far enough away to not have anyone in her way, but close enough to still hear the conversation. She had her hands hovering over the six pieces of the broken Ocarina of Time. Her hands were coated with some kind of white magic. She had been worried that she would have no idea how to fix the thing, but once she had all six pieces in front of her, it was like her hands knew what to do and she just went to it. She had playfully suggested that she was 'channeling her inner Maya'. The once-separate pieces were becoming fuzzy-looking as they slowly started to reconnect into the one main artifact.

Though the reconstruction of the Ocarina of Time was coming along nicely, it was still taking a long time. It had been three hours already. In the meantime, Vaati and everyone else had been telling their respective stories, trying to get everyone on the same page.

"All because of this," Green continued, pointing back with his thumb to the sword on his back. "The 'Four Sword', as you called it, right?"

Vaati sighed, mostly at himself. "I was sealed away here by the Four Sword, by four identical warriors such as yourselves. When you came here and took up the sword, my seal was broken. How I followed you all back into your time… I don't know. I suppose it doesn't matter. But when I saw the four of you in the forest, I… I just went insane. So consumed was I by thoughts of self-preservation and revenge that I lost my grip on reality. Even though some part of me acknowledged that you obviously weren't the same person – the one that sealed me was younger than you are – it didn't matter at the time. I had already gone mad, mad enough to go back to the likes of Ganon and actually take his dirty deal."

"Ganondorf," Blue corrected.

"Yes, sorry. As far as I have always known, he has gone by only 'Ganon' for a very long time. Anyway, all this about the Four Sword doesn't excuse my behavior. Though I managed to stop myself in time, it doesn't change what I almost did. I'm ashamed."

"Stop with the guilt thing over there," Lydia called without taking her eyes off of her work. "I told you I forgive you, so forget it."

Vaati smiled slightly, and called back, "Yes ma'am."

Gordon was shaking his head and looking at the ground. "This is really bothersome, though," he grunted. "If Ganondorf still exists even this far ahead in the future… Then that means we won't be able to _truly_ defeat him, will we?"

The group fell silent.

"Indeed," Vaati said, "he still exists in my time. He manipulated me into doing the things I did that eventually got me sealed away here." His eyebrows came together as he became lost in thought. "Although, it wasn't like he was living a normal life or anything. You never saw a guy like him walking down the street or in the corner shop. From what I understand… by the time he appeared here… he, too, had been sealed away for a long time."

His face becoming a little less grim, Gordon said, "So, we may be able to at least seal him away."

"But, wait," Vio cut in. "How are we supposed to do that?"

"It may not be up to us," the sorcerer replied. "That part might be up to Zelda and the sages. Our role in all this might be to just weaken him enough for something like that to be possible. Though…" He placed his chin in his hand as he got lost in a thought. "With two Triforce pieces, the Master Sword alone might not be enough… It's going to need a little extra kick. That might be something Lydia and I can help with. But what can we do…?"

Vaati considered the question and tried to work through all of his previously-useless knowledge of their magic. Something to give the sword extra kick…? Something powerful…

Lydia's sudden gasp got everybody's attention, and they turned to face her. She picked something up off of the grass and jumped to her feet. In her hands, she held an intact Ocarina of Time. Giggling with glee, she kissed it a few times, then skipped over to where everyone else was sitting. She crouched down next to Green, still giggling happily, and held it out to him.

"Here, we're halfway there!" she announced excitedly. "Try playing the Song of Time. That's connected to the Master Sword, right?"

Green smiled sadly and shook his head. "It won't work right now."

"No?" Her face fell. "Why not?"

"Because even if we were in the correct time at the moment, which we definitely are not…." His voice trailed off, and he looked over at his three identical companions. "The Master Sword chose the Hero of Time to wield it. None of us are him."

Gordon was nodding and said, "That makes sense. We have to put you back together and go home to our own time before we'll find the sword."

"Oh yeah," Lydia muttered, a strongly-disappointed tone in her voice. She smiled again as her mind changed tracks. "Then I guess you know what you have to do next." She gestured toward the empty pedestal that once held the Four Sword.

The four Links looked around at each other, then at the empty pedestal. Saying nothing, they all stood and drew their copies of the Four Sword. With undisguised determination, they walked the short distance over to the pedestal, and took positions on all four sides of it.

"This is all happening so fast," Green said. He looked up and saw all of his identical twins back at him. "I'm… I'm going to miss you all."

"Why?" Blue asked cheerfully. "We're not going anywhere. We're just coming back together like we're supposed to be. We'll all still be there, just… on the inside."

"He's right," Red agree with a cocky grin. "Every time you learn something new, that'll be Vio. Every time you get upset about something, _this_ joker will be showing himself." He pointed over at Blue, who seemed completely unfazed by his teasing. "And whenever you're just ready to completely destroy an enemy you face, _I'll_ be there to help."

Vio said nothing, but simply smiled and nodded his agreement.

Blue waved at Lydia with his whole arm, and she smiled and waved back.

Green looked down at the pedestal in front of him. That's right, he thought. They weren't _really_ going away. Just… going home again.

He placed the tip of his copy of the Four Sword in the open notch on top of the pedestal. The other three did the same with their swords. All four copies of the sword met at a single point on the pedestal. In a unison movement, they all slowly pushed the blades downward.

A light appeared at the point where the sword met, and it grew blindingly bright. Vaati and the two sorcerers had to shield their eyes against it as the four warriors disappeared with in it.

Vaati had a terrifying thought. What if replacing this sword would put him back into where he was sealed away? He reached out and gripped Lydia's shirt sleeve, as if doing so would keep him there. His sensitive ears picked up the sound of a click, the sound of the Four Sword settling back into place in the pedestal. The bright like started to dim down again. When Vaati realized that he could still feel the fabric of Lydia's shirt between his fingers, he sighed with relief. He was still there.

The light finally disappeared, and the only person left standing by the Four Sword, now at rest again, was a lone warrior dressed in Kokiri green, standing with his back to them. He stood still for a moment, looking at the sword, and then finally turned slowly to face the others. The smile on his face was peaceful.

It was like seeing him for the first time. All four of those identical men had been Link, yet none of them really had been. And now here he was, standing before them, whole once more. His eyes had a familiar glint in them that had been missing while he was split apart. He stood before them a different person than he had been five minutes before.

Lydia quickly passed the Ocarina of Time to Vaati, then ran forward and wrapped her arms around Link's neck. "I missed you," she whispered in his ear.

Knowing exactly what she meant, Link said nothing, and just held her close.

Surprised, Vaati leaned over and whispered to Gordon, "I had no idea it was like that."

Gordon nodded. "Understandable. Having four of them instead of just one made it a little complicated."

"I see." Vaati straightened up again and continued to watch the two of them in their embrace. He felt his heart warm and he smiled.

He looked down at the object she had passed him, the Ocarina of Time. So this was what they were collecting. It must be very important to their quest. He made a mental note to try to find record of it in the history books later.

Lydia finally took a step back, looked up into Link's deep blue eyes for another moment, then playfully patted on his chest. "Come on, buddy, we've got work to do."

Link nodded. "We have a world to save."

After looking back at the Four Sword one last time, Link followed Lydia back over to where Gordon and Vaati were standing. Vaati handed the Ocarina of Time to him, and he stood looking at it for a quiet moment. So much had happened because this little thing had been broken. But now, finally, they were close to making everything right again.

"I guess we should get going back to our own time," Lydia said. She looked over to Vaati and smiled sweetly. "What are you going to do now?"

It wasn't a tough decision for Vaati to make. It was something he wanted with all of his being.

"I suppose I'll go back home now," he said, looking off into the distance. "I'll live quietly, find honest work… and spend the rest of my life trying to make up for everything I've done here. The castle town has a grand archive library… Maybe I can find work there."

"Don't live your life burdened with all that guilt, though," Lydia said with a warning look.

"I'll try not to," Vaati agreed, "but with guilt or not, I still have to make amends. And I'm going to do my best."

"Will you be all right if we leave now?" Gordon asked.

"Oh, yes. I think I have a pretty good idea of where this place is. I should be able to find my way back to town without too much trouble." His face suddenly turned serious. "But before I go, I have a question for you. Have you two ever tried mixing your most powerful white and black magic together?"

Confused by this question that came out of nowhere, Lydia simply shook her head with a blank look on her face. Gordon, on the other hand, looked quite troubled.

"That's incredibly dangerous," he declared with a frown. "They're on opposite ends of the magical spectrum, and melding them together could result in a ridiculous amount of power and fallout. There's every chance that it would go out of control. The damage would make that spell you saw Lydia use earlier look like nothing but firecrackers. That's why you never hear of it actually being done."

"Yes, I understand that," Vaati said impatiently, "Conceptually, I know it's dangerous and insane. But what if you had some way to keep it from going out of control?"

"Like what?" Lydia asked.

"It would require some kind of magical object, certainly. Something with enough power in itself to act as a vessel for the magic mixture long enough for it to be used for its intended purpose without destroying the entire kingdom in the process."

"The Master Sword," Link said suddenly.

Vaati nodded. "Yes, that's what I was thinking. And when the sword's power is added to the mix, even Ganon will not be able to defend himself against it."

"But can the Master Sword handle something like that?" Gordon asked, his face looking skeptical.

"I believe it can. From what I know about that sword, I truly believe that. It's one of Hyrule's greatest artifacts, yet to be matched even in my time."

"Hm… So, the strongest black magic spell we have is the Dragon Slave, obviously… As for white magic…"

Lydia grinned. "My old secret weapon, the Phoenix Flare. That spell alone almost defeated Ganondorf four years ago. That, plus a Dragon Slave melded with it, _plus_ the Master Sword? We can't lose."

Her eyebrows came together, and she added, "You know… I never thought I'd ever say this, but maybe it's a good thing our magic will be lost after we're gone. With this kind of potential, can you imagine the damage that could be done if it fell into the wrong hands?"

She felt Link's hand on her shoulder, and he said, "That may be so, but if this plan works, it'll go out doing some great good, at least."

"I hope so. I also hope we don't screw it up and end up destroying what's left of Hyrule instead of saving it."

Link smiled and said with confidence, "I know of no two people better qualified. It'll be fine."

No one said anything for a moment. Vaati broke the silence by saying, "I suppose I will take my leave now." He bowed slightly to them. "I wish you luck. May the goddesses protect you."

As soon as he straightened up again, Lydia jumped forward and pulled him into a tight hug. "Thank you for everything," she said.

"Huh?"

"Yes," Link agreed. "I know I had my doubts about you, but truly, we couldn't have gotten this far without your help. So, thank you."

Gordon patted Vaati on the back and nodded his agreement.

When Lydia finally let him go, he stepped back to take one last look at his new friends. He couldn't help but feel sad. After he left this place, he would never see them again. But this was the way it had to be. He had a lot of wrongs to make up for, and they had to go back to where they belonged and fight for their kingdom. He just hoped that what little he had been able to do would help them in the end.

Vaati started to turn, but stopped when he heard Lydia's cheerful words.

"See you in the history books!"

 _Indeed,_ Vaati thought, chuckling to himself. He turned around and started to walk away from the ruins, not looking back again. He was turning his back on his old ways. Even after all he had done, fate had given him a second chance. When he found his way back to town, he was going to start a new life. He resolved to always follow the example of the remarkable people he had met today that had helped him turn his life around.

The young man disappeared over the top of a nearby hill, and was gone.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Princess Zelda turned in time to see the sorcerers and the four identical Links disappear through a portal they had conjured with their magic. They had had a new person with them, as well, but there was really no time to ask about him. It would have to wait. For now, she and her entire kingdom were locked in a battle for their homes and their way of life.

As she looked on, the vast army of Stalfos was engaging the army of Hyruleans. It didn't look like there had been any casualties on their side yet, but neither had any of the Stalfos fallen, from the looks of things. Her army was managing to hold the enemy back and stop their advance, but they were so far unable to regain any ground.

Ganondorf had used the power of his Triforce pieces to transform into a great pig beast that towered above everything else in Hyrule Field. Link and the sorcerers had fought him when he was in this form four years earlier, losing only narrowly. Zelda and her army had slim to no chance of defeating him as he was now – this she was certain of. The Hero of Time was still their main hope in this battle, and Zelda felt that the role of everyone else – she and her army – was to hold them back long enough for the Hero to return and deliver the finishing blow. She didn't know how much time they would need before they were ready to fight, but she and everyone in her army were all prepared to fight to the last man to give them their chance to strike Ganondorf down.

Zelda was confident in the ability of her army. They had spent the last four years training themselves in preparation for this day. However, she couldn't help but wonder just how long they could keep up like this. They were holding their own against the Stalfos exceptionally well, but she got the feeling that they would tire long before the Stalfos did. Zelda prayed that Link would be able to return with the Master Sword soon. They probably only had a few hours before the Stalfos army would begin to push forward again.

There was probably even less time when it came to Ganondorf himself. He was currently locked in a fierce fight with what Zelda recognized to be one of the guardians of the Ocarina of Time pieces. She had seen three of them herself, so she knew them well. This one, amazingly, had responded to Lydia's call, as if she were its master. Had she struck some kind of a deal with it? However she had come to be able to command it, Zelda was thankful she had. If that guardian weren't keeping Ganondorf at bay, he would probably be able to just sweep through her army with little effort.

They were at a stalemate for now, but it wouldn't last long. As she continued to whistle commands to the Hyrulean fighters, she prayed hard.

She heard a sound behind her, and turned to see that the vortex was reappearing. Gordon was the first to come through it. He pulled Link along behind him, and Lydia appeared next. Zelda was expecting more Links to run through, but none did. The extra person they had had with them before also did not reappear. The vortex closed silently behind them and disappeared again.

Only one Link? Did that mean he was once again whole? Zelda felt her hopes rise for a moment, thinking that through some amazing stroke of luck, they were already ready to fight. However, the empty sheath on Link's back said otherwise. They still didn't have the Master Sword.

"I hope we got back to the right time," Lydia said, then turned to look up at Zelda. "How long have we been gone?"

Still a little stunned by the fact that they were back so soon, it took a second for Zelda to answer. "I-I'm not certain… Maybe thirty seconds?"

Lydia laughed, then smacked her fist against her brother's. "Nice. You have good aim, kid."

Link had his eyes locked on the war going on in the distance, with determination reflected in his set jaw. "No time to celebrate," he declared, and then reached into his clothing. He pulled out the reconstructed Ocarina of Time.

Zelda's eyes lit up when she saw it. "If you play that, the Master Sword should react, wherever it is."

"That's the hope," Gordon agreed with a nod. "And then hopefully, once it shows us where it has hidden itself, we can get there and get back quickly." He looked off at the fighting, adding, "I can tell we don't have much time."

"Get to it, Long Ears," Lydia said with a confident grin.

Link grinned back at her, and then with a calming sigh, he started to play the Ocarina. The familiar, elegant sound of the Song of Time filled the air around them. The sound of the Ocarina was gentle, and yet so dominating that the sound of the distant battle almost faded away completely.

After the song was finished, nothing happened for a tense second or two. They felt no reaction from anything that felt like the Master Sword. They knew they knew they were in big trouble if this didn't work. They really had no other ideas for finding the sword again. How were they supposed to defeat Ganondorf without it?

With a grunt of pain, Link suddenly dropped the Ocarina into the dirt at his feet and clutched at his chest. Shaking, he dropped to his knees. Lydia was at his side almost immediately, but he pushed her away.

"No, get back-!" he managed to hiss between his clenched teeth.

Lydia was horrified as he watched him breathe heavily, quivering from some unnamed pain. What was happening? Had they miscalculated something – made a fatal mistake somewhere in their logic?

The Hero of Time suddenly arched his back and yelled up toward the sky as an intense wave of energy flowed out from him. Tiny streams of light started to shoot out from his body, one after another, collecting in the air in front of him. This continued for several seconds, until the collection of light had grown into a sizable orb that hovered in place a few feet from the ground. Finally, whatever energy had Link in its grasp suddenly released him, and he fell backward, crumpling down into a heap in the dirt.

The sorceress tried to keep her terror from shutting her brain down. Trying to keep her wits about her, she quickly rushed to Link's side again, and was surprised and relieved when she saw that he was already starting to pick himself up.

"I'm all right," he assured her as he got up to his knees.

She sighed with relief. He didn't appear to be lying for her sake – he really did look fine now. Whatever had happened to him, whatever pain had gone through him, it looked like there wasn't even a hint of it left.

He got to his feet quickly and stared ahead at the orb of light that glowed in the air. Before anyone could even wonder aloud what it was, the orb started to change shape. It began to stretch out vertically until it was several feet tall. A greater portion of it was gathered at the top, which was taking on a shape of its own. The top stretched itself out in a cross pattern.

The light wrapped tightly around itself, and finally began to dim. The light condensed to form a shining blade secured into a blue hilt.

After hovering into the air for another second or two, the Master Sword dropped and stuck itself into the ground. The clouds in the sky shifted slightly, and the tiniest hint of moonlight glistened on its blade.

A wave of peace came over Link as he walked forward toward where the sword had come to rest. He wasn't really focused on his approach, so amazed was he by the sight of the sword. His body seemed to be moving on its own, as if the sword was beckoning him.

He wrapped his fingers around the handle. The feel of it was so natural in his hand. Not until he touched it again did he realize how much he had missed the feel of it. The sword was like a limb that had been lost, which was now being reattached.

He pulled upward, and the sword came free of the soil easily. He turned it over and held the shining blade up toward the sky. He ran his fingers along the metal, and the most peaceful smile appeared on his face.

"Hello, old friend," he said to it.

Lydia suddenly tackled him from behind, jumping up on his back and wrapping her arms around him. She was loudly cheering in his ear. "You're back, Hero!" she said happily.

Having retrieved the dropped Ocarina of Time at some point, Gordon appeared next to him. "That's amazing!" he said with more Lydia-like enthusiasm than he usually cared to display. "When this thing was broken, the sword didn't hide itself in a physical location… It went to the one place where no one else could get it." He held the Ocarina out to Link, adding, "Your heart."

Gently shrugging Lydia off of his back, Link took the Ocarina and put it safely away. "For the first time in a while, I feel like myself again," he said, his eyes still locked on the Master Sword.

Zelda steered Epona close to the group. "I'm so relieved!" she said, with her face clearly showing that. Epona playfully chewed on Link's hair as the princess continued, "We have everything we need now. Do you have a plan?"

Taking another glance at the battle in the distance, Gordon answered, "We hope so. With two Triforce pieces, I really doubt anything can kill Ganondorf. But perhaps we can _seal_ him away instead."

The princess nodded thoughtfully. "Indeed… The sages and I might be able to manage that. But I can't help but worry that he's too strong for us to seal him."

"That's where we come in. We'll weaken him as much as we can, and then you and the sages can make your move."

"Zelda," Lydia said, "our way of weakening Ganondorf has the potential to catch a lot of people in the crossfire. We're going to need everybody to get out of the way."

"I understand. I will await your signal, and then sound a retreat."

"Lyd," Link said, "are you really going to attempt that melding thing Vaati suggested?"

"If Vaati was right about the Master Sword being able to keep it under control, and I think I agree with him, it should be fine. The kid and I will stay back here and chant the spells, and you work your way through that crowd up there. Get close to Ganondorf, and we'll send our magic into the sword. After that, it'll be up to you, Hero."

"Here," Zelda said, hopping down off of Epona's back. "Use Epona to cut through the Stalfos army. There's too many of them for you to get past by yourself.

As Link took Epona's reins from her, Zelda closed her eyes in silent concentration. She opened her eyes again after a moment, and declared, "All right, the sages are ready when we are to attempt the sealing."

She started to back away, saying, "I have to get into position to get everyone clear. When the moment comes, we'll be ready." Her face softened and she smiled. "I've asked so much of you all over the years. You have selflessly given yourselves to this kingdom. If we manage to get through this day… I only hope I can make it up to you." She then turned and started to sprint back toward the battle, her sword at her side, prepared to fight anything that might try to intercept her.

"All right," Gordon said with a look toward his sister. "I assume I'm going to be supplying the Dragon Slave?"

Lydia nodded, "And I'll prepare the Phoenix Flare." Her mouth curled into a smirk. "A little ironic, isn't it? You're preparing the black magic and _I'm_ doing the white magic?"

Her brother nodded and replied, "Yes, I suppose so."

The sorceress pointed off into the distance toward the west. "Let's make sure we give ourselves plenty of space. You go that way, and I'll go this way." She pointed behind her, toward the east. "Keep an eye on me. We'll want to fire these things off at the same time. And let's not start until Link's ready to begin cutting through those Stalfos. I don't want to push our luck by doing the melding too soon." She looked up at Link, and asked, "Does that sound okay?"

The Hylian nodded. "I'm going to have to trust your judgment on this one. I just hope I can hold up my part of this plan. To be honest, I'm not sure how to even approach… _that_." He gestured toward Ganondorf's now-huge beast form.

"Don't worry," Lydia said to him. "I'm sure that once you're there with the sword, you'll know what to do."

"I'll do my best."

She smacked a fist into her open palm as she suddenly remembered something. "Oh! One last thing I almost forgot. It's true that I believe the Master Sword can control the melded spell, but you'll be in such close quarters with the target that you could still get caught in it." She reached into her shirt, pulling out a golden chain with a Triforce-shaped charm on the end of it. It was the Sorcerer's Rune. Link hadn't seen that in so long, he had thought she didn't have it anymore. She lifted it up to her mouth and whispered something to it in a language he didn't understand. It glowed briefly, then dimmed again.

With a smile, she reached up with both hands and placed the necklace around his neck. "This will protect you."

"Thank you," he said as he tucked the charm into his clothes.

"All right, I'm going to get into position," Gordon said. He turned and started jogging off.

Lydia heaved the type of sigh one might when they were under pressure and pressed for time. "Okay," she said. "And I have to go this way." She squeezed Link's arm and started to walk off that direction, but he caught her by the wrist and kept her from leaving.

She turned to look back. "What?" she asked.

Keeping his eyes lowered, he gently pulled her closer to him. The girl could feel blood rushing to her face. What was he doing at a time like this? He wrapped his strong arms around her and held her close. Her heart started to race.

All of the chaos going in Hyrule Field seemed to disappear. Even Epona, still standing nearby, had faded away. All there was in the world at this moment was the two of them.

"Lydia," he whispered into her ear. "I've always imagined doing this on a sunny hilltop or something, but given the circumstances, I want to do it now, just in case something goes wrong."

The girl's heart skipped a beat.

"If we survive this…" Link continued, "…If Ganondorf is defeated… and we have a chance to live our lives as normal people…" He swallowed hard and Lydia could feel his heart beating furiously. "Will you… Will you marry me?"

Tears welled up in her eyes. She had wanted to hear this for years, and even though the circumstances weren't what either of them had imagined they would be, it still felt amazing and perfect.

"We've always lived our lives on the edge of oblivion," she started to reply. "Fighting to survive, defeating all kinds of monsters… The thought of settling down… being a wife… living peacefully in a little house somewhere… Compared to our lives up until now, it sounds so boring." Unable to hold it back anymore, her voice broke from emotion. "And I want that boring life more than anything in the world. Of course I'll marry you."

Link laughed lightly in her ear, then pulled away, placed his hands on both sides of her face, and kissed her.

He stepped back after a moment, wiping a tear from his eye with the heel of his hand. Smiling from ear to ear, he jumped up into Epona's saddle, taking the reins in his hands, the Master Sword on his back. Now, he finally felt ready for this.

When he turned for one last glance at Lydia, she had her hands on her hips.

"Try not to get killed, okay?" she instructed, a clearly playful tone in her voice.

Link laughed. "And miss out on you verbally abusing me for the next fifty years until I finally die in self defense? Not likely!" He turned to face the battle, removed the Master Sword from its sheath on his back, and dug his heels into Epona's sides. They thundered off toward the Stalfos army.

Knowing there was no time to waste, Lydia immediately took off toward her spell position a little ways out to the east. As she ran, she conjured a tiny ball of light in her hand that she then heaved up into the air. It flew up about twenty feet, and then exploded into a rainbow of colors. She hoped Zelda knew to take that as the signal to get the Hyruleans out of the way.

As soon as the magical firework went off, the sorceress heard a sharp whistling from somewhere in the distance – one of Zelda's commands to her army. The flood of people on the battlefield froze, and then started to drastically shift. The entire Hyrulean army was abandoning their immediate fight and taking off to either side, clearing the center of the battlefield. The Stalfos left behind stood where they were, clearly unsure as to why their opponents were retreating.

The sorceress skidded to a stop at the top of a small hill, brought her fingers up to her lips, and whistled as loudly as she could.

On the far end of the battle, Goldie was still rolling around in his fight with Ganondorf. The Evil King had his arm around the dragon's long neck and was trying to keep him pinned to the ground. The dragon looked up suddenly at the sound of Lydia's call. With a particularly nasty snap of his jaws on Ganondorf's arm, Goldie wriggled free and took to the sky immediately. He soared high over the heads of everyone else in the field, spun around, and landed hard behind where Lydia stood.

Now both the Hyruleans and her new pet guardian were out of the way. They had a clear shot, but they had to act quickly. If they gave Ganondorf any more time to react than they absolutely had to, they might risk their chances of success. Based on what Gordon and Vaati had been saying about the power potential that came from mixing black and white magic, let alone the most powerful black and white magic they knew of, it was hard to believe that he would be able to do anything to protect himself, even as strong as he was now.

Even so, she knew they shouldn't get overconfident. They had been fighting Ganondorf on and off for over half of their lives, and they knew full well that he was an expert at managing close-calls. That being the case, they weren't going to give him any time to protect himself against what was coming. Ganondorf probably wouldn't expect they could get the Master Sword back so quickly, and it was Lydia's hope that seeing Link coming toward him waving it would keep him distracted. He would concentrate on that, and then the magic would be there suddenly, and by the time he realized what was going on, it would be too late for him. They would have gained a momentary element of surprise advantage.

Lydia's lips pressed together into a thin line. Their plan for success was based on a whole lot of assumptions…

But it was all they had now.

She turned and scanned the horizon for her brother, and saw him waving his whole arm at her. He was ready. He put his hands into position in front of him, and even though she couldn't hear his voice from where she was, she knew from experience that he had begun reciting the spell for the Dragon Slave.

She took one last look at the battle before she prepared to cast the Phoenix Flare. As her eyes closed, the last thing she saw was Link and Epona disappearing into the mass of Stalfos, the Master Sword raised high.

 _This is it!,_ she thought.

Epona thundered through the Stalfos army. They didn't slow whenever one of the Stalfos got in their way – Link kept pushing Epona onward. His goal was at the other end of the mass of Stalfos. In the distance, Ganondorf was getting to his feet again. He was slow, and the movement looked labored. It seemed that the dragon had bruised him up pretty badly.

They continued on at top speed. Monster after monster was thrown aside, either by an expert swing of the Master Sword or by Epona's barrel-chest slamming into them, before they even saw them coming.

Epona was running and fighting with everything she had. One might not believe at first that a horse had a mind that was capable of understanding the gravity of their situation or the importance of this battle, but Epona certainly seemed to. The way she would throw her chest into a Stalfos to knock it aside, or use her massive head to fling another up into the air as she ran by, suggested that she completely understood what was happening. Where a lesser horse might have panicked, thrown its rider, and fled, Epona kept going with unshakable determination to get through. She knew that this would be her contribution to their victory, and she was going to give it her all.

Link, sensing the horse's drive, yelled encouragement to her as he continued to cut enemies out of their path. He kept his senses sharp as they got closer and closer to where Ganondorf was trying to recover his footing. He was well out of even Hylian earshot of where the sorcerers were, and this plan required split-second timing. However, he was confident that he would know when to act. He had been fighting with them so long that it was almost instinctual. Until then, he and Epona would continue to get as close as they could.

Forming seals with her hands, Lydia began to chant the spell.

" **Bird of purity, reborn from flames,**

 **Against whom no evil could ever stand.**

 **In the name of justice and the forces of nature,**

 **I summon thee from the depths of time itself!"**

Tiny fragments of white magic gathered at the far edges of Hyrule Field. The fragments multiplied exponentially until it was an unshaped mass that surrounded the field. The magic then shot from the borders toward where Lydia stood, gathering around her. Nature itself began to respond – the wind swirled the magic around her in a dazzling light show.

Her voice became fiercely powerful as she continued the spell.

" **Have no pity on the evil that stands in my way!**

 **Infuse me with power! Let your strength become mine!**

 **To wipe it from this earth,**

 **To deliver unto it the ultimate fate!"**

Lydia raised her hands above her head, and all of the magic swirling around her gathered in those hands into a great, glowing orb of light. As she was about to fire off the spell, something in the corner of her eye caused her to pause.

The ghostly visage of Maya was standing next to her.

The sorceress was startled to see her already. She had used the Phoenix Flare, or a variation of it, two times before, and Maya had appeared both times, so seeing her here was no surprise. But in both of those instances, Maya had appeared _after_ the spell was fired off, not before.

The theory was that the Phoenix Flare's unique power, which was rooted in regeneration and rebirth, was what allowed Maya to temporarily appear in the physical world. The fact that she was now able to appear here before the spell's incantation was even completed showed just how much power Lydia was generating. Just like the Dragon Slave she had used to erase Ganondorf's tower from the map had been her most powerful and devastating one yet, this spell was setting up to truly be something to behold.

Maya was looking very exhilarated, with a triumphant twinkle in her eye. It seemed that she knew what was happening here, and what was _about_ to happen.

With a confident smile, Lydia said to her, "This one's for you and Riku, too."

Maya flashed her a wide, toothy grin, and nodded. She then moved soundlessly to stand behind Lydia. Though Maya's physical body was long gone, Lydia could still feel it when Maya planted her ghostly hands on her shoulders from behind.

"All right, let's do this!" she shouted aloud, throwing her hands out in front of her. _**"PHOENIX FLARE!"**_

Somewhere off to her left side, barely within earshot, she heard her brother scream at the same moment, _**"DRAGON SLAVE!"**_

A gigantic bird, made of pure white light, exploded from the white orb in her hands and took flight. Instead of retaining its bird shape, as it had done previously, it stretched out into a solid beam of white light.

From the west, a thick beam of red light – the Dragon Slave – was heading for a collision course with her spell. When those two spells hit, it would be the moment of truth. Would the spells meld together in the way they were hoping? Or, would this kingdom blink out of existence when they collided? Lydia held her breath.

Just when the two spells were about to slam into each other at a sharp angle, they suddenly changed direction, and ran parallel with each other as they sailed toward the north. The two beams of light began to spin around each other, slowly at first, and then so quickly that they were no longer distinguishable as separate spells. They fused together, becoming a single stream of magic, glowing like the sun, pulsing with an unimaginable amount of energy.

The spell cut through the Stalfos army as if they weren't even there. Any unfortunate monsters that were caught in its path were vaporized in the blink of an eye. Completely undeterred, the fused spell continued onward.

Link didn't have to turn around and look to know what was coming. He could feel its approach – see it in his mind, rather than with his eyes. The sorcerers had succeeded in their part of this fight. And now, it was his turn.

Keeping his eyes forward, he held the Master Sword out to left his side as far as his arm would allow. He braced himself for a fierce impact, praying that he wouldn't lose his grip on the sword. The magic in the air was so thick now that it made his skin crawl. Any second now…!

The fused spell hit the sword in a brilliant flash, but without the physical blow that Link was expecting. Rather, it came into contact with the blade very lightly. Looking over at the sword, he could see more and more of the magic swirling around the sword as the blade gathered the spell into itself. He could feel the handle of the sword vibrating with the effort.

The whole process took only a few seconds. When the Master Sword had completely absorbed the spell, it glowed brilliantly white, covered with a thick coat of energy.

Ganondorf was back on his feet now, realizing a second too late what was happening.

Link lifted himself up and planted his feet on top of Epona's saddle, and straightened up as much as he could while still retaining his balance. The horse maintained her long stride as they broke free of the last of the Stalfos army. They quickly closed the distance, and Link leapt from Epona's back, rolling forward when he hit the ground. Epona veered off to the side and ran to get clear.

The Hero of Time used his momentum to roll back up to his feet quickly, and began an adrenaline-filled sprint forward. The rest of the world seemed to freeze, and it felt like he was the only thing still moving. It almost caught him off guard just how quickly he closed the distance between himself and his mortal enemy.

Link swung the sword back behind him, holding it with both hands, preparing to deliver the strike.

As he did so, all sorts of unpleasant memories filled his head. He saw all the previous times they had battled with Ganondorf. He saw before-and-after images of the once-beautiful Hyrule. He saw all of the Hyruleans in Zelda's safe haven that had been uprooted from their lives when Ganondorf took over.

The scenery in his mind suddenly changed to something much more pleasant. Towns were being rebuilt and people were getting their lives back together. The trees had started to sprout leaves again, and the grass was growing. The river no longer churned uncontrollably, allowing Lake Hylia's water to slowly clear up. The animals were slowly returning from wherever they had fled to when the land was destroyed.

Lydia waiting for him when he came home…

A future with hope. A peaceful future they had always wanted…

All possible if the beast that stood before him was erased from existence.

With a gallant battle cry that seemed to echo across all of Hyrule, Link brought the sword down.

Energy exploded from the Master Sword the instant it made contact. A dome of magic expanded out from the point of the strike, but it stayed contained within the immediate area, not extending out beyond Ganondorf himself. Despite the bright light, Link forced himself to keep his eyes open. He, too, was inside the perimeter of the magic, but felt nothing of its attack power. It was like standing in the middle of a tornado, such was the pure force of it, but there was no pain. Link could feel the Sorcerer's Rune pulsing against his skin. Lydia had been right – it was protecting him.

Ganondorf, however, had no such protection. As Link held the Master Sword in place with all of his strength, the magic tore at Ganondorf's transformed body mercilessly. Strings of black and white light pierced him over and over as he screamed in pain and fury. He dropped to his knees as the magic continued to bombard him.

Link suddenly thought of another way to further weaken him. This wasn't part of the plan, but this would be his only chance to accomplish this.

The beast, now kneeling, had lost some of his significant height advantage over Link. He removed one of his hands from the handle of the Master Sword, then reached up and grabbed hold of Ganondorf's lowered forehead, taking care to avoid the horns and tusks, and dug his fingers in as hard as he could.

"I believe you have something of mine!" he yelled, and silently prayed to Farore, the Hyrulean Goddess of Courage, for her assistance.

A golden light exploded from Link's hand. Ganondorf screamed in anger and tried to escape what was happening, but the power of Lydia and Gordon's magic was holding him in place as it continued to do its damage. For the first time in their entire quest, they had rendered the powerful Ganondorf completely helpless.

There was another explosion of light, and the force of it pushed Link back several feet. With his hold on Ganondorf now released, the magic infused into the Master Sword finally began to reduce in intensity. The dome of light slowly shrank, until all that was left was the beast Ganon, beaten and broken, down on the ground on his knees and elbows.

Link straightened up again and stood tall. The wind shifted, momentarily blowing his hair away from his face. The symbol of the Triforce of Courage was just starting to fade.

He tightened his grip on the Master Sword. A blue light momentarily gathered and swirled around it. The power glowed for a few moments, then disappeared back into the shining blade. This was not the sorcerers' magic – that had been spent bringing Ganondorf down like this. This blue light was the power of the Master Sword itself, reawakened by the return of the Triforce of Courage.

Running forward, Link moved to deliver the final blow. Up until now, he had felt like the Hero of Time in name only. Now once again re-armed with the power of the goddesses and the sword of evil's bane, he was the true Hero again. He slashed at Ganondorf's head again and again. With each strike, Ganondorf reared back as if he had been hit with something as heavy as his own weapons, so great was the power of the sword against him.

Link reared his arm back, and stabbed the blade of the Master Sword directly into the great beast's forehead.

Time seemed to freeze. Everyone and everything around them fell deathly silent.

He yanked the blade back out of Ganondorf's head and jumped back. The beast reared up on its knees, flailing his arms wildly through the air, yelling in agony.

From the surrounding mass of people, Zelda appeared. The other sages pushed themselves into the front lines, as well. Even Rauru, the elusive Sage of Light, was there, standing next to the princess. For all anyone knew, this was his one and only appearance outside of the Sacred Realm.

"Six sages!" Zelda yelled at the top of her lungs. "Now!"

Zelda threw her arms up in the air, and a ball of light appeared there for a moment. When it disappeared, the princess fell to her knees in exhaustion.

The other six sages did the same. They raised their arms toward the sky, generating their own respective power. Six different colored balls of light were created, which suddenly shot up into the sky. The power of the six sages flew through the air and hit Ganondorf head-on, gathering into a flat disc of power beneath his hoofed feet.

The light grew so powerful that Link had to shield his eyes as he continued to back away. A powerful wind rushed in his ears, blocking out almost all other sounds. For the first time since he had transformed, he heard Ganondorf's voice.

"Curse you, Zelda!" he growled in his human voice. "Curse you, Sages! Curse you, Link! Someday when this seal is broken… that is when I will exterminate your descendants!"

The light dimmed and surrendered to the darkness of the night once again. The howling wind finally died down. Slowly and carefully, Link lowered his arm from in front of his eyes.

Ganondorf was gone. There was no trace of him left behind.

Any members of the Stalfos army that hadn't already been blown away by the fused spell simply faded away into thin air. All that was left were the stunned Hyruleans.

Up in the sky, the thick blanket of clouds began to thin out and part. For the first time in four years, Hyrule could see the sky. As the clouds continued to fade away, a bright, full moon came into view, bathing the ground below in its light.

After a few moments of stunned silence, someone in the Hyrulean army started to cheer. As they slowly realized what had happened, a few more people joined in. It wasn't long before everyone, all several hundred of them, dropped the caution from their optimism and were cheering and jumping. All throughout Hyrule Field, people of different races were shaking hands and embracing each other. The Gorons were so excited that they were rolling all around the perimeter of the battle field.

Off in the back, Goldie the dragon, sensing that his service was no longer needed, beat his great wings and leapt from the ground. He soared off soundlessly and disappeared over the distant horizon.

Link continued to stare at the spot on the ground where Ganondorf had been standing. There was nothing but dirt there now. Was it possible? Had they… had they finally won? He couldn't seem to bring himself to believe it.

As he slowly slid the Master Sword back into its sheath, it finally started to sink in. He was gone. They had finally beaten him. He began to feel a kind of joy so intense that it was actually managing to affect him physically. He should have felt exhaustion after such an act, but a new wave of energy was flowing in.

Standing there silently, he smiled as he tried to keep himself from crying. They had been fighting Ganondorf for so long that the very idea of peace in Hyrule had become distant. And in the span of a few minutes, it was suddenly much more within reach. A fantasy had suddenly become reality.

His mental celebration was interrupted when he heard Lydia's voice from somewhere in the sky above him. She dipped toward the ground and tackled him at full speed, sending them both flying back several feet. When they finally came to a stop, the sorceress had her arms wrapped tightly around his neck.

"You did it!" she screamed happily. "I can't believe you did it! Well, of course I can believe it, since it's _you_ , but I still can't believe it!"

As a single tear slipped past his defenses, he wrapped his arms around her. " _We_ did it," he corrected.

Gordon had been just behind his sister. "I can't believe how perfectly that worked!" he said happily as he helped the other two stand again. Lydia grabbed hold of her brother and squeezed him as hard as she could, cheering happily into his ear and jumping up and down.

Epona returned to them just then, bucking and kicking happily as she ran in circles.

On her feet again, Princess Zelda appeared next to them with tears in her eyes.

"Can I assume that the sealing worked?" Link asked her.

She nodded. "Indeed. Ganondorf has been sealed into the Sacred Realm. He will trouble us no longer."

"…But not forever," Lydia added cautiously.

Zelda's smile did not fade in the slightest, but the excitement in her eyes dulled the tiniest bit. "I'm so relieved that you managed to at least get the Triforce of Courage back, but Ganondorf still has the Triforce of Power. There's every chance that someday… decades or centuries from now… he'll find a way to return."

"Well, look at it this way," Lydia continued cheerfully. "Hyrule will be ready for him next time. By then, the land will have recovered and the people will be reorganized, and they'll be better able to fight back and defend themselves. And even if they don't have us, they'll have the Master Sword."

"That is true. We'll have to find a safe place to put it to rest, now that the Temple of Time has been destroyed. Perhaps in the forest somewhere, protected by that area's natural magic."

"And when it's needed again," Link added, "it will also be ready."

"Exactly," Lydia agreed with a grin.

Zelda looked up into the sky, gazing at the full moon. "Now that Ganondorf's power is gone, this kingdom can finally begin to heal." She turned to look at the sorcerers, and bowed slightly. "I cannot even begin to express how thankful I am for your assistance all these years."

"We were glad to," Gordon replied with a shrug. "After all, Hyrule has become as important to us as it is to all of you."

Off in the distance, the Hyrulean army appeared to already be organizing a celebration party amongst themselves. Several bonfires had already been built, and the soldiers were starting to dance in their light.

"What will you do now?" Zelda asked the sorcerers. "I'm sure you will want to go back home, but I do hope you will be able to stay for the celebrations that I'm certain will be going on all night."

"We wouldn't miss it," Gordon replied.

"And afterward, I'll do whatever I can to help with the rebuilding," Lydia said.

"Really?" Zelda asked. "That would be wonderful."

The sorceress shrugged and said, "Well, it's only the natural thing to do. This is my home now. I mean, I'll have to go back to my world to tie up some loose ends, and I'm sure I'll go back there from time to time to visit with my family, but ultimately, this is where I'll be spending the rest of my life."

The princess and Gordon both cast looks at Link, who smiled shyly and looked away.

Zelda smiled from ear to ear. "Oooh, I see," she said through her smile, apparently understanding completely.

Gordon did, as well. So, Link had finally asked the big question. He playfully ruffled his sister's hair with his big hand, then leaned down and planted a friendly kiss on her cheek. "Congratulations," he whispered to her. "I'm so happy for you both."

"Thanks, buddy," she whispered back. She looked off into the distance and saw that the party amongst Hyrule's soldiers was picking up quickly. "Well, let's all not worry about the rebuilding and whatnot until tomorrow. I think we all deserve to rest for tonight."

With that, the four of them started toward the party the soldiers had thrown together. The whole thing still didn't feel real. Ganondorf was finally gone, and all of Hyrule was gathered in to a great victory party. It was something they had previously only seen in their dreams.

But, sometimes, dreams do come true.

* * *

The following morning, Link and Lydia stood in the center of the ruined Kakariko Village, keeping their eyes shielded from the bright mid-morning sunlight.

As expected, the party had gone on all through the night, and was still going strong when the two of them finally wandered off on their own. Gordon had stayed behind with everyone else, dancing with some of the soldiers like Lydia had never seen him dance before.

At some point, Zelda had returned to the safe haven in the forest to tell those that hadn't become soldiers that it was safe to come out, and they, too, came and joined the massive celebration in Hyrule Field.

The party had grown silent only once – when the morning sun broke over the eastern horizon. It was the first time in four years that Hyrule had seen a true sunrise. They marveled as the sun bathed the clear sky in golden-red light, and all stood silently, watching in awe. It was another physical reminder that they had succeeded in winning their kingdom back, and only caused the party to get even more wild.

With the entirety of Hyrule's population in the field, everywhere else was still quiet. Kakariko was as quiet as a ghost town, save for the occasional birdsong that reached their ears. The birds had returned to the region sometime during the night, and it was refreshing to hear at least some signs of life.

"Man, this place got hit hard," Lydia said as she looked around at the destroyed buildings. "It's going to take forever to get this village back on its feet."

"Maybe not," she heard Link call. He was off a little ways from her, crouched down where a house had clearly used to stand. "Amazingly, the foundations still look more-or-less intact. We may able to get these buildings rebuilt quickly."

"Good," she replied, walking over to join him. "These people deserve to get their lives back together as soon as possible." After a silent moment, she said, "You know, something's bothering me about all of this."

The Hylian asked, "What?"

Lydia shook her head slightly. "Nothing much, it's just... Remember that prophesy from Din? 'Allies will fall, evil will rise. Even when all seems lost, the last resort will fail. Only the power of all will defeat the evil. Ultimate power will restore the land.'"

Link stood back up and said, "Right... I had forgotten all about that.

"I'm a little bothered by the fact that all of it has come true up until now."

"How's that?"

"Well, the first half of it came true. I think it refers to our battle with Ganondorf four years ago. Allies falling, evil rising... And the bit about a last resort failing, I think that refers to my Phoenix Flare. I saved that spell for years indeed as a last resort against him and even that didn't bring him down."

"So, it's the next part that's bothering you."

"'Only the power of all will defeat the evil. Ultimate power will restore the land.' Until last night, I've always thought that the 'ultimate power' would be the Triforce. But Ganondorf got sealed away _with_ the Triforce of Power... so we ended up not being able to reassemble the Triforce in the end. So, did the prophesy just not come true?"

Link thought for a moment. "No, I think it did. It's just that the 'ultimate power' wasn't talking about the Triforce."

"No?"

"Think about what happened at the end. All of Hyrule came together to fight. 'The power of all'. And the ultimate power must refer to the camaraderie and teamwork displayed by an entire kingdom fighting for a single cause. Not until we all came together did Ganondorf finally fall. If you look at it that way, the prophesy was right."

Lydia laughed a little. "Wow," she said. "That's… right out of every book I've ever read."

They were silent for a few minutes, lost in their own thoughts, until Lydia spoke again.

"So, Gordon told me that he was going to go back home soon. He promised that he would come to visit whenever he could, but that he was going to live back in our world. He thought it would be too hard on our parents for _both_ of us to call another world home."

Link placed his hand on her shoulder. "That's okay," he said with a smile. "And I'm sure we'll go visit as often as we can, too."

"You, too?"

"Of course. Keep in mind, you still have to teach me how to drive the car."

Lydia laughed. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that." She looked around once again at the ruined surroundings. "So… Rebuilding Hyrule… How do we even start?"

Link thought for a moment, then said, "I think Zelda said something about gathering the castle elders. They have to decide where they're going to re-locate and rebuild Hyrule Castle. She asked me if I could help train a new set of knights and act as their captain."

"Hey, good for you! That's perfect!"

"In the meantime, we can help rebuild Kakariko… Maybe build a house for ourselves, too."

The girl smiled. "That sounds nice," she said. And she meant it. She had meant every word she had said the night before about wanting a completely unexciting home life. A future with him. After all, until very recently, she thought it was a future she would never have. As long as he was there, it would be perfect.

She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed hard. He returned the embrace, and kissed the top of her head.

After so many years of hardship, fighting, and heartache… They had finally found peace.

"Why don't we head back to the party?" she suggested. "Somebody from the forest hideout brought ale. The way I saw Gordon chugging it as we were leaving, he's probably buzzed out of his mind. That's got to have some entertainment value."

Link shook his head, laughing. "Sympathetic and sensitive as always, I see."

"Come on, I'll race you there!"

She started to run toward Hyrule Field, but only got a step ahead before Link's boot hooked around the front of her ankle, causing her to trip and face-plant into the dirt. Lifting her face off of the ground, she saw Link sprint ahead of her, laughing as he went.

"Why you-!" she shouted after him as she picked herself up again. " _So_ dead!"

Jumping back up, she took off after him.

Yes, this was it, she thought as she ran. The peaceful life they had worked so hard for. Now, all that was left of their adventure was to live happily ever after. She was greatly looking forward to it, and wondered what the future was going to bring.

* * *

Breathing heavily from the effort, Vaati carried yet another heavy stack of books up the library stairs. He set them down on the huge sorting table, then leaned on them for support as he tried to catch his breath.

True to his word, after Lydia and the others went back to their own time, he went back to the castle town to try to find honest work and get his life back on track. He had gone straight to the archival library, having had that idea earlier, and the man who owned it was kind enough to take him in and offer him a job.

It had been several months since then, and Vaati was proving himself to be a valuable member of the library staff. He worked all around the library, doing his best to keep the books organized, and his natural attraction to books led to him doing his job with exceptional care. It really didn't feel like work to him. He was practically in heaven, surrounded by so many old and interesting books all day. Some of the books dated back hundreds of years.

In fact, that's why Vaati was working so hard today. The entire library staff was working around the clock. A few days before, some historians had uncovered a stash of really old books from what they believed to be the site of an ancient castle, though the royal family could neither confirm nor deny that information. The books they had discovered at the site were flooding into the archival library now, where they needed to be dated and sorted for further study and later storage.

The load of books Vaati had carried up here was only a small part of the entire collection that had been uncovered. There were still more to be gathered. He still had a long day ahead of him.

Someone was coming up the stairs behind him, carrying another armload of books. He was a big, burly man, and his extra strength allowed him to carry a load of books three times larger than the one Vaati had managed. This was the owner of the library, and considering the importance of the discovery of books they were bringing in, he had come to personally assist.

"Hello, sir," Vaati greeted him.

With a grunt, the big man set the mountain of books down on the large table, where they flooded outward to almost entirely cover it.

"Hi, youngin'," he said. "Thanks for your help today,"

"Of course, sir," Vaati replied, absently brushing a thick coat of dust from one of the books.

"Say, I'm glad I ran into you. I need to show you something. I've been trying to figure this out, but I just can't come up with an explanation."

Vaati looked at his boss questioningly, but said nothing.

The big man continued, "One of these old books, for some reason, has your name on it."

"W-What? Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. I can read, can't I? Where'd that thing go…?" He leaned over the mound of books he had dropped on the table, and started sifting through them with his big hands. Finally, he grasped a book that was half-buried in a pile, and held it out to Vaati.

Vaati couldn't tell what this book was. It was completely wrapped in some kind of thick, durable paper, tied closed with an expensive-looking piece of rope, that despite its obvious age, still looked as fancy as it probably had when it was first made. And just as his boss had said, somebody had hand-written Vaati's name in ink on one of the upper corners of the wrapping paper.

As he tore the paper from the book, he couldn't help but feel guilty – it felt like he was destroying a historical artifact. But someone had written his name on this book, and he had to know why.

Once the book was free from its wrappings, Vaati could see how amazingly old it was… Probably hundreds of years. Normally a book this old would be in danger of crumbling to dust in his hands, but this one was in remarkably good shape.

The title of the book read "War of the Triforce".

His boss glanced at the cover. "Oh, I've read about the War of the Triforce. Of course, we don't call it that anymore. Nowadays it's usually referred to as the Great Cataclysm. It refers to a conflict that occurred when the Triforce was originally split into three pieces. …Wow, 'War of the Triforce'. Shows you just how old this book is. That war happened at least a thousand years ago. Did you request it from the historians?"

Mystified, Vaati said nothing and just continued to stare at the ancient history book. A voice called down from the lower level, saying something about another wagonload of books coming in.

"More work to do," the big man said as he walked past Vaati and started down the stairs again.

As carefully as possible, Vaati cradled the book in one arm and opened the cover with the other hand. He scanned through the pages without really reading the words, but he caught bits and pieces of information that sounded vaguely familiar.

When he was almost through the book, he turned another page, and a folded piece of paper, yellowed with great age, that had been tucked into the book fell out, landing on one of his shoes.

His heart skipped a beat as he gazed at the page that had been marked by the folded paper. It was an artist's rendering of what looked like a portrait. Vaati recognized the people it displayed immediately. Central to the picture was the man that had taken the Four Sword and released him from his seal. He was quite a bit older in this picture than Vaati remembered him, maybe as much as twenty years older, but he still looked as strong and fit as ever. He was dressed in what looked like the ancient garb of the Hyrulean knights.

On either side of him were older versions of Lydia and Gordon, dressed equally elegantly.

Vaati could hardly believe what he was seeing. So, they had survived their fight after all, he concluded as he felt a rush of relief. They had survived, and obviously lived on for many years afterward.

Suddenly, he remembered the piece of paper that had fallen out of the book. He carefully set the book on the table next to him, still open to the page with the portrait, and retrieved the paper from the floor. Very, very carefully, since it looked to be old enough to come apart in his hands, he unfolded it. It was a letter.

 _And they lived happily ever after._

 _We couldn't have done it without you. Thank you so much._

 _Even though we will be long gone by the time you receive this letter, I want you to know that we've always kept thoughts of you in a special place in our hearts, and remember you fondly as the misguided but inherently good man that really came through for his kingdom in the end. I know we weren't together very long, but we've always considered you a dear friend, and I pray that you are able to find the peace you seek for your life, as we finally did._

 _Live well, and stay out of trouble!_

 _Lydia_

Tears jumped to Vaati's eyes before he could do anything to stop them. Lydia must have remembered what he had said about maybe finding work at the archival library, and prepared this book for him, knowing it would eventually find its way into his hands centuries in the future. Just then, he remembered that the last thing she had said to him as he left was "see you in the history books", but he didn't realize at the time that she had meant it literally.

He couldn't help but feel sadness about the fact that they indeed were long gone by this point in history. But his sadness was quickly overshadowed by happiness and relief that their lives had turned out so well, despite what they had been facing when he had last seen them.

He vowed then to honor their memory by living as well as he could. He would make up for his previous misdeeds, as he had promised he would. His future suddenly looked even brighter.

He gently folded the letter again and put it back into its place in the dusty book's pages. Carefully, he closed the book.

 _I promise._

He heard his boss's voice call up to him from the lower level. "Come on, youngin'!" his booming voice hollered. "These books aren't going to move and sort themselves!"

Vaati wiped the tears from his eyes, and yelled back, "Coming, sir!". He turned and took off down the stairs to the library's ground floor with his heart flying high.

 **THE END**


End file.
